ProtectorTale: Life Above
by ProAJ13
Summary: *The sequel to ProtectorTale!* The Barrier has been broken! Monsters have been freed! This is just a nice, happy ending, right? No, because life goes on! There are many obstacles ahead: Introducing Monsters to the world, dealing with the expected racists, the media, normal life, not-so-normal life with monsters, and the many consequences of magic returning to the surface world.
1. Not Just Stories

**This is a sequel to "Protectortale", so you should probably definitely read that before this.**

 **Once again, I have no idea what to do with the name. Life Above is okay but also kind of meh. I want a better name but I'm** _ **so**_ **not coming up with anything right now. I suck at naming things…**

 **Anyway, this first chapter is still story focused, but chapters after this will settle into the slice of life stuff. Consistency will be nonexistent, as per the usual with me. Also, I wrote these first chapters like forever ago.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own or claim to own anything I may use or reference in this fic, including video games, like Undertale, Minecraft, Terraria, or music as well. All things I reference are owned by who or whatever owns them.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.1

* * *

Long ago, two races rules over Earth, humans and monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.

Many years later…

Mount Ebott, 201X.

Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.

But… one day…

*CRACK* * _SHATTER_ *

…Two did return… and they brought _a lot_ of friends.

Mayor Johnson never knew what would come with each day, but he woke up with as much passion as he could muster nonetheless. Any day could pass normally, or it might be a bit more… eventful, but he would be ready to react no matter what. He was a man who was prepared to react to events, but he still liked to plan ahead for as many events as he could.

He could never have prepared for what happened today though.

He was a man who reacted to things, but he was also a man who liked to deal with things head on and with his own hands. So, when his secretary called him and told him that she was being threatened by some people who demanded to speak to him, he told her to let them up. Whoever they were, he was going to deal with them personally. They were going to get an earful from him if what they had to say was anything less than world-changing.

AJ had to stop the others, the monsters. He told them to wait and that the other monsters should wait as well. Sans would bring Papyrus back, but they had to stay. They of course asked why. Quite simply, he wanted to make a plan to introduce Monster-kind to the world. He couldn't move and think at the same time, not when he needed to focus as much as he could on this. The human sat down in the dirt and tried to ignore everyone else as he thought.

Bringing them all in at once was a bad idea, that would scare people. Bringing just the few before him was still not the best idea in his opinion. He thought the best way to do this was bring the idea up to someone important. Monsters are coming back whether people like it or not, but if an authority figure told them first, then maybe the idea of Monsters could be introduced a bit more… smoothly. Some people will panic, sure, but less will panic this way.

That's why Frisk, AJ, and a third party were walking through the bustling city on this early morning, heading towards the Town Hall. The third party was hidden under a hooded cloak and was told "Keep your head down and don't make a sound or else we are _so_ dead" by AJ, so they stayed down. Thankfully, people in the large city are too busy going about their own thing to care about someone in a cloak. The humans had gotten used to the cloaks they had been wearing, but three people in cloaks probably _would_ have attracted attention, so they left their cloaks with the monsters.

"Well, being back here sure is interesting." The taller human commented, staring up at the skyscrapers around them. 'I never liked this part of town, actually.' He thought.

"Yeah, it's been awhile since we've seen so many humans, huh?" The younger human asked jokingly. She still held onto his hand. It was just habit at this point.

They were surrounded by sound, and the third party with them was quite a bit nervous hearing so much noise. There were people walking all around them. Some were talking on their phones, and others were talking to each other. Cars drove back and forth down the streets, occasionally honking. Honestly, neither of the two humans really liked it that much. It was something to see after being in the Underground for awhile, but they both preferred having at least a few less people around them.

AJ's grip tightened on the shoulder of the one in front of them. "Stop." He requested. The three of them stood and watched as the vehicles stopped and drove by in front of them. "Come on… come on…" He mumbled, pressing the button repeatedly in the hopes that it would make the lights change sooner. He was worried, every second they were standing around meant that someone would notice that one of them wasn't exactly human. A couple other people walked up beside them and waited to cross the street as well, which only increased his levels of stress.

Eventually the electric sign signaled they could cross, and everyone walked on. Frisk and AJ tried to act as casually as they could, and the one under the hood simply walked forward as the boy requested, partly with words, and partly with pushing or pulling on their shoulder. Thankfully, the crowd dispersed as everyone went their own ways after crossing the busy street, allowing the older human to relax just a bit.

Eventually, they made it to the City Hall and walked around to the front of it. "Alright, we're doing good so far." Frisk commented with a smile.

"Yeah." Her fellow human agreed. "I'm surprised we made it this far." 'Knock on wood.' "You're doing good." He said, patting the monster's shoulder slightly, so they would know that he was complimenting them. "We're almost done, so just stay quiet a little longer and we might just make it."

Once inside the large and pretty building, they approached a young woman sitting behind a desk. She looked up from her computer at the people approaching her and greeted them with a smile. "Hello. What can I do for you?" She asked.

"Well um…" Now faced with the fact that he was about to do this, he could hardly believe it. His life certainly didn't stay boring like he thought it would if he stayed alive. "We really need to see the mayor." He didn't really know any other way to say it, so he just said it. He wasn't one to break rules, but he had to for this.

"Well, do you have an appointment to see Mr. Johnson?" The lady asked.

"Yeah…" The boy started hesitantly. "You see, something _serious_ came up and we really need to get up there and tell the mayor." He said, pointing at the stairs to their left.

"Well, he isn't exactly in a meeting or anything, but he's still a busy man, you can't just walk up whenever you feel like it." The woman explained, remaining professional.

"Yeah, I know." AJ said, showing with his facial expression that he didn't like what he was doing. "And I would never waste his time if it wasn't for something important, but this is _seriously_ important and we _really_ need to see him _right, now_." He stressed the importance of this as best as he could, hoping this woman would just trust him.

Trust some teen that marches in and asks to see the mayor without an appointment? He did his best to not seem like he owns the place or something, but there simply isn't any reason for her to trust him, and he realizes that. "I'm sorry, but I'm really not supposed to let you go up. It's probably best for you to just lea-"

"I know you're not supposed to, I know we need an appointment, but we really do not have time for that." The boy said, his expression shifting to a frustrated one as he put both his hands on her desk and leaned towards her. "What I have to tell the mayor is world changing s**t, okay? I _need_ to get up there!"

The woman's face made it clear her patience was running out and she didn't appreciate his rudeness. "What could possibly be world changing, yet has only just come up?" She asked. "And if it's so world changing, why does our mayor of all people need to know about it first?"

He lowered his face and glared at her. " _Are you going to let us see him or not_?"

"That depends, are you threatening me?" She asked, unamused.

AJ glanced around to make sure no one was watching and held his hand close to his body, at an angle where no one else could see his hand glow with green flame. Suddenly, her expression shifted dramatically. She had no idea what that was or how he was doing it, but it looked very real to her and she didn't want to find out. She quickly got a hold of the mayor. "S-sir? There's someone h-here that is requesting to see you… No, they don't… No, I can't turn them away. Sir they're demanding to see you and one of them is glowing, please!... O-okay, alright." She put down the phone. "M-Mr. Johnson will see you now." She said, looking up at him fearfully.

He quickly dissolved his threatening vibe as much as he could and took a step back. "Thank you. I really didn't want to do that. Sorry for scaring you." He said honestly as they walked away and went up the stairs while the woman sat there, scared and confused.

They walked down the hall until they found the mayor's office and knocked. "Come in." The three entered, and saw a man who looked to be in his 70s. He had a large squared head that was bald at the top, and what hair he had was grey or white. He wore a brown suit and brown suit pants. The man was sitting in his chair, behind his desk at the other end of the room, and was glaring at them. "Are you the ones I was just told about?"

"Yes." AJ said with a nod. He knew that saying sorry would likely only cause him to rant, so he didn't bother. "We have something very important to tell you."

"It better be important." Johnson said threateningly, pointing at them. "Take a seat." He requested, and the three walked up to the two chairs and sat down. The monster stood between the chairs. "Who's this?" He asked, gesturing at the cloaked individual.

"Well um, that's what we're here to talk about." The boy started hesitantly, before remembering something that he rarely thought about and gestured to himself. "Oh, I'm Anthony, and this is Frisk by the way." Frisk gave him a look because she had honestly forgotten that was his real name. "Anyway, we're here because-"

"Wait a minute…" The man said slowly, cutting him off. "Have I seen you before?"

The taller human was confused. "Um, no. I've never been this close to you before. I've never talked to you before." He answered.

"Then why do I recognize your face?..." He asked himself as much as he asked them. "And you, too! I know your face from somewhere!" He said, pointing at the girl.

"Um… I've never talked to you either." Frisk said hesitantly.

The old man continued to stare at them, and his facial expressions showed he was close to a revelation. "Wait a minute!" He shouted. "You're both missing! I saw your faces on the news because you both were missing!" He realized. "Where have you two been!? Do your parents know that you're alive!?"

The man was going to keep asking questions, but AJ slammed his fists against the armrests of his chair and cut him off. "That's not important!"

The mayor was clearly pissed. "What could be more important than letting your parents know that-"

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" AJ demanded. He realized he had yelled and slapped his hands onto his face. "Ugh. I'm sorry, give me a moment." He took a few deep breaths and soon relaxed. "As I was saying…" He started slowly. "Something has happened, just recently. A world changing event just happened in the mountains nearby, and you need to know about it. An authority figure like you needs to know about this before word gets out.

The man gave him a perplexed look. "Word about what?" He asked.

The humans glanced at each other and felt their anticipation start to build up in their chests again. "Okay, I'm going to show you something. Try to remain calm, okay?" The teen requested. The man gained a confused and curious look as he leaned back in his chair and waited. AJ leaned over and slowly pulled the hood off the monster, who hesitantly looked up at the man.

"Uh, y-yo! Hey!" Monster Kid greeted a bit shyly.

The man's eyes widened. "W-what the hell!?" He asked, shocked.

"Please don't freak out." AJ accidentally said out loud. He realized he had said that and tried to just pretend he didn't. "Were you ever told those stories about an ancient war between humans and monsters?"

Johnson looked at the boy and his eyes got even wider. "Those!?" The humans nodded. "Are you kidding me!? I told those stories to my kids when they were little! Hell, I told those stories to my grandkids!" He said with a smile. "But I… I thought they were just stories…"

"I think most all of us did." AJ agreed.

"They're not stories though!" Frisk chirped in. "They're all real and they're all really nice!"

The teen smiled. "That's for sure. Sir, they've been trapped under Mount Ebott for all that time. They and all the magic in the world were trapped by a human spell back when humans still had magic."

The man smiled and leaned back in his chair as he stroked his chin. "You're not about to tell me that those monsters have been freed, right?"

The teen couldn't suppress an awkward chuckle. "There's no other way to say it. While Frisk and I were down in the monster world, surrounded by all that magic, we were able to meet these monsters, make friends with them all, and use magic to break the barrier that had trapped them."

There was no way around it, they were going to have to lie about things. It was the only way monsters would be accepted, and they made sure to tell the others what the lies would be before leaving. Toriel and the others were going to tell every other monster that before they left the Underground.

"Oooh no. People are _not_ going to take that well." The mayor realized.

The boy frowned. "Yeah, I know. We took a big risk coming here, but we were hoping to tell you first. I think if you were told first, maybe the Monsters could be introduced a bit easier. Fact is, they've been down there for a very long time, and they are not staying down there any longer. They want to be free and explore the rest of the world that they were denied because of that pointless war. People are going to find out about them soon and if you tell them first, well, maybe things will go over a bit better."

The mayor thought about a lot of different things in a few seconds, and it started to sink in. "Oh god. The world really is going to change from this. Monsters amongst humans?" They nodded, and he facepalmed. "Oh no… you're expecting me specifically to help with that, aren't you? There are going to have to be new laws, the news will go crazy trying to film them and learn about them… oh there is so much that's about to happen." He realized. "I have a lot of work ahead of me, don't I?"

"A whole lot is about to happen and, unfortunately, the things we do may very well decide if monsters can be moved in peacefully, or if they will be killed by paranoid, racist humans." The teen said.

The mayor sighed. "Why are you being so brutally honest?" He complained, before shaking his head. "No! None of that right now! A lot is going to happen soon, and the world has no idea it's coming. I need to work fast! In order to do that though, I need to meet the other monsters."

The humans were surprised by this. "Wait, really?" AJ asked.

"Yes!" He answered strongly. "I need to meet the people I'm going to try and bring equality to! There will inevitably have to be laws made specifically for monsters after all. These people that you said are so nice are about to have to deal with a lot of racism and cruelty while simultaneously getting far too much attention from the media and other people who don't know what privacy is. Show me these monsters and I'll go from there." He ordered.

"Yo! Awesome!" Kid cheered.

"Alright, let's go!" Frisk said excitedly.

"Whoa, slow down, Kid." AJ requested so he could pull his hood back up. "Once we get out of the city, you can take the hood off."

* * *

There was hardly time to celebrate, they had to tell the mayor as much as they could on the way while they drove towards the mountain. The roads ended quickly though, and they had to walk the rest of the way, which at least gave them a bit more time.

"So, my secretary said someone was glowing." The mayor started as they walked up a secret side path up the mountain. "Did you two learn magic while you were down there?"

"Oh, yeah, that would be me." AJ spoke up, embarrassed. "After being down there for so long, we've sort of got some magic inside of us. I can feel that there's less now that the barrier is gone, but quite a bit of magic has stayed inside of us. I kind of built up some energy inside of me into my hand and, well…" He trailed off and decided to just show it. His right hand glowed green before green flames sprouted out from his skin and surrounded his hand.

"Whoa." The old man took in the sight before him. "So, this magic is starting to spread across the world now?"

"I think so." AJ answered.

"Sooo will other people randomly start using magic soon?" Johnson asked.

"I guess that might happen." The teen answered with a shrug. "Though from what little I understand about magic, it will probably take awhile. I'm kind of just guessing how magic works, but it will probably spread from the mountain, and so it will slowly build up in people until they're able to use the energy within them for magic. The first panicking people who discover their magic abilities will likely be in your city or the smaller one nearby."

"You two have opened Pandora's box." The mayor commented.

"Yeah, and I can only imagine Frisk and I will have to teach people how to control their magic at first." The teen figured, not looking forward to that.

"Well that sounds fun to me." Frisk commented.

"We're going to need to figure out how to control our own magic first though." AJ said.

"You don't know how to use your own magic yet?" The man asked.

"No, we just barely started to figure out how to do it when we broke the barrier." The teen answered.

"So I'm guessing that doesn't hurt since you've had your hand on fire this whole time?" The mayor guessed.

The boy looked at his hand. It was in fact still on fire. "No, it really doesn't. In fact, it feels kind of nice, and warm." He noted with a small smile. They walked by a small plant sticking out of a crack in the dirt path, and the boy decided to crouch down and touch it. It didn't catch on fire, and when he let go of it, there wasn't even a burn mark.

"Huh. Anything you can do, kid?" The mayor asked, and both kids looked at him.

"I don't know how to use my magic yet. I'm not old enough." Monster Kid answered.

"Actually uh, I meant her." The man said apologetically.

"Oh! Well, I don't actually know what I can do yet." Frisk answered hesitantly.

"Well, I can only imagine magic is a dangerous thing. It will take time for people to get used to it, and there will surely be people who try to abuse their powers." Johnson noted.

"That's for sure." The teen agreed. He couldn't help but wonder how mankind survived back when they had magic. 'Maybe people weren't ***holes that would destroy each other with their powers back then.'

At one point along the path, they noticed a familiar lizard staring out at the city in the distance. She turned her head right and noticed the people approaching. "O-oh! You're back!" Alphys realized, and approached them.

"Hello there!" The mayor greeted with a friendly smile. "I am Mayor Johnson, but just call me Mr. Johnson for now."

"I-I-I'm A-Alphys, sir." The monster greeted and shyly shook the man's hand, which was quite a bit larger than hers.

"Alphys here is the Royal Scientist." AJ said. "She knows a lot about magic and magic technologies I think, so she's gonna be pretty helpful for everything coming up soon."

"I keep realizing how much the world is about to change, and I have a feeling I'm going to keep finding more reasons why." Johnson said. Technology and magic combined? He could only imagine what they would accomplish. Already he could see that treating these monsters fairly would be of benefit to the whole world.

"Yeah, hopefully she'll be able to explain how I can do this." AJ commented and set his left hand on fire.

The scientist's eyes widened in surprise and wonder. "Whoa! You- you're using your Soul Energy! Amazing! I've never seen Soul Magic before!"

The boy chuckled. "I figured you would know something. You're going to have to help Frisk and I learn how to use our magic."

"Of course! I'll do everything I can!" The monster said, her stutter thrown away in the face of such an interesting subject. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't start using magic sooner!"

"So you're the _Royal_ Scientist, correct?" The man asked for confirmation, and Alphys nodded. "So does that mean that there is a King or Queen in the monster world?"

Alphys's eyes widened. "Oh! Right! The King and Queen of the Underground! I have to go get them so they can meet you!" She realized before running off further up the mountain. "Asgore! Toriel!"

"Well, looks like I'm about to meet royalty." The mayor realized before straightening his tie and walking onward, the others following. Kid ran ahead of them and went to see the other monsters, leaving the three humans to walk on to the top and admire the view of the city. "So, kids?" He started before looking away from the city and at the two humans that have freed monster kind. "What are we going to tell your parents?"

Both of them looked away from the man and frowned. "I left because I didn't want to be with my parents anymore." Frisk said. "I don't want to see them again." She answered.

"Yeah." The boy said with a nod. "My parents would just annoy me while I'm trying to deal with everything with the monsters and such."

"So… what? We just don't tell them their kids are alive and well?" The mayor asked.

"Like I said, my parents would find me and annoy me if they knew." AJ said. "The last thing I want to do is deal with them." He crossed his arms. "They kicked me out, so I don't have to talk to them anyway. I'm living my own life now." The hate in his voice was just barely noticeable, but it was there. "They don't want me in their lives anymore..."

"I don't care what you tell my parents, I'm not going back to them." Frisk said with quite an angry tone.

"Then where are you going to live?" Johnson asked.

The humans turned to each other and smiled before turning back to the man. "We're living with the monsters." AJ answered.

"Seriously!?" The man asked, shocked. "You trust them that much?"

"Yep!" Frisk answered. "Toriel is a wonderful mom for us!"

"She is the nicest of all the monsters _by far_ , and _very_ motherly." The teen explained. "We agreed we'd stay with her."

The man nodded before turning around to observe the massive hole in the mountain. "So, what makes you like the monsters so much?" He asked, curious.

"They're literally made out of love and magic, so most of them are far nicer than any human." The boy answered.

"Most of them?" Johnson repeated questioningly.

"Well, they're just like people. Some of them have attitudes or don't like others very much, and one in particular is a warrior, so she likes fighting." The teen explained.

The man nodded before turning around to face them. "Alright, I need you to be honest with me. Did any of them hurt you?" He asked seriously.

Suddenly the boy was terrified about him learning the truth. He thought the man would surely hate monsters if he knew about the other humans that had fallen. "Well… yes, they did try to hurt us. They were afraid we were going to kill them like we had done in the war, so nearly every monster we saw attacked us out of fear." He explained hesitantly.

"And? What did you do?" Johnson asked.

"We made friends with them all." Frisk answered.

"…You made friends with them when they tried to kill you two?" The mayor asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, she wouldn't let me kill a single monster no matter how hard they tried to hurt us. I didn't want to kill them anyway, but still, some of them fought pretty hard. This kid though, she insisted on being friends with everyone. Every time a monster tried to hurt us, she tried to find a peaceful way to make them stop fighting. Somehow, she always did." The girl smiled when they looked at her. "They all were scared, and they just wanted to be free, so we decided to free them."

"And then you dropped the whole problem on my plate." Johnson finished. He saw the teen go to explain, but he raised a hand to stop him. "I'm joking. I know I'm not the only one who will have to deal with… issues. Really, it was smart of you to do this. And you're lucky the authority figure you found was me and not someone who was… less open-minded about the idea of monsters."

The teen smiled at his praise before noticing the people behind the mayor. "You might want to turn around."

The man turned around to see a group of strange creatures. A large figure in the center, with a smaller but similar looking one to the left, further left was a figure in armor, to the left of them was the scientist he had met, and to the right of them all were two walking skeletons. So many different creatures were in front of him, but they were all humanoid and most were even smiling at him. The largest one with massive horns walked forward and stuck his furry arm out.

"Howdy! I'm King Asgore Dreemur." Asgore greeted with a friendly smile.

Asgore was large, but his smile made it much easier to be so close to him. "Hello. I'm Theodore Johnson, the mayor of the town you see down there." He greeted and shook the monster's hand as well as he could. "I'm hardly that important in the grand scheme of things, but I'm probably the best you'll get for announcing that monster kind is not only real, but now back on the surface."

Asgore nodded before turning to the ones on his right. "This here is the Captain of my Royal Guard, Undyne." The fish woman kept a serious and professional vibe and nodded at the man. "I believe you've already met my Royal Scientist." Alphys waved shyly.

"I am Toriel." Goat Mom greeted with her usual smile as she shook the man's hand. "I… am not actually the queen anymore, but I should be there for any important meetings you want to have."

"Understood." Johnson said with a nod. Asgore was saddened by this, but tried not to show it.

"Hey, Papyrus!" Frisk waved.

"Did he get in any trouble?" AJ asked sans.

The shorter skeleton smiled. "He was just about to jump out and greet a group of humans, but I stopped him."

"I'M TELLING YOU, SANS, THEY WOULD HAVE LOVED ME!" Papyrus argued.

"Are these two important?" Johnson asked as he took in the sight of walking, talking, skeletons that somehow could form various facial expressions, and even open their mouths to speak, despite lacking any muscles.

"They're just good friends of ours." Toriel said with a chuckle.

Sans heard this and walked up to them. "Hey, I'm no _bonehead_. I actually know more than you might think."

"Do you mean that you're a scientist?" Johnson asked.

"Not exactly, but I can help Alphys with various things in her lab." Sans answered.

"You can?" Alphys asked before she could stop herself, and the skeleton pretended to be offended.

"You wound me."

"There are countless more monsters down in the Underground. They're waiting to be able to come out, so we should get past the greetings soon." AJ suggested once he stopped laughing.

"Right." Johnson nodded in agreement. "The world is about to get the biggest revelation in recent history. Not only that, but you all need a place to live."

"Unless you've got, like, a spare _mansion,_ or _several_ , that we could use, we're going to need many house to live in." The teen pointed out.

"A-and I'm going to n-need a lab." Alphys spoke up. "W-well, at least one nearby."

The man slowly looked over everyone before looking at the humans behind him. He smiled at them before walking to the edge of the cliff and looking out to the right of the city. "How about there?" Everyone walked over and tried to look where he was pointing without falling. "Not too far away from my city is the suburban area that might as well be a separate town. There would be less people, and…" He glanced at Frisk and AJ. "you would be able to avoid certain people as well." He said with a smile. "Not only that, but last I checked there was actually a large amount of houses for sale as people had moved out to cheaper cities far away from here."

"Does that sound nice, everyone?" Asgore asked, and everyone agreed.

"Good. Now, for the hard part." The mayor said, and everyone looked at him with worry. "We're going to have to just do it quickly, rip it off like a bandaid. It's time for the world to learn that monsters are real."

"What are you gonna do?" The teen asked.

"I'm going to call a news crew up here." Johnson answered before pulling out his phone.

The humans looked at each other with worry. This was the part they weren't looking forward to. This and everything following was not going to be pleasant. Monsters were going to be discriminated against, there was no doubt about that in their minds, but Frisk still hoped for the best.

"Alright, they're on their way. I'm going to meet them at the bottom of the mountain and walk them up here. Try to look presentable when they get here, because the cameras will likely be rolling. Everyone in town, everyone in the county, hell the whole state is going to know about you all pretty soon!" Johnson said as he started to walk back down the path.

The monsters themselves were excited, they had no idea what was coming and didn't know about the bad times they were going to have. They would be getting a lot of attention, and most of it would either be overwhelming, or just plain bad. The two humans, however, were _this_ close to finally having their home, and they were both determined to keep it, no matter what discrimination awaited them.

* * *

 **I think this chapter's gone on long enough.**

 **Have a great week, everyone!**


	2. Magic and Monsters

**Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.2

* * *

"Hey, AJ? How did you use that magic in your hand?" Frisk asked her fellow human.

"You just got to feel for your soul and draw from it." He answered easily. The girl gave him a confused look. "Sorry. Here, let me see if I can do that better." He said as he sat down, motioning for her to sit in front of him. He held up his hand between them as he spoke. "I don't really know how to explain it in much more detail. I just kind of… pulled some sort of energy from my soul and let it build up in my hand. Try to do that." He requested as his own hand started to glow green, and after a moment it was covered in light green flame. The center of the flame was actually a darker green, but the rest surrounding it was the same light green as his soul.

The girl held up her own hand as well and stared at it as she tried to focus. "Try to reach into your soul." The boy spoke, figuring he might as well practice teaching how to do this. It might help him understand it, and maybe find a way to properly explain it. "Not literally of course, but like… do it with your mind." He repeated the process himself as he explained it, and it helped him start to find the words for it. "Find it within you and touch it, and you should feel an energy start to flow from your soul. Try to move that energy to your hand, like, guide it there." He requested.

It took a few minutes, but soon, Frisk's hand glowed red. The glow came and went a few more tries before she finally got it, and her right hand was covered in a pretty red flame with a lighter red, almost pink, flame in the center. All humans and monsters that noticed this admired the sight, and the humans couldn't help but think of Valentine's Day with the color scheme of the flames. She dissipated the flame and reignited it again multiple times, getting a feel for it and finding it a bit easier to do each time. Then her red soul appeared over her chest, and she ignited the flame again. She made her soul disappear again, and she ignited the flame once more. She did this a few times before humming.

"What is it?" The boy asked.

"It's easier to do it when my soul is out." The child commented. "And I… feel different when my soul is out and I'm doing it." She added.

The boy became curious and tried to make his own soul appear as well. It took him a moment to figure it out, since in the Underground, hiding his soul wasn't even an option he had control over. He had to agree though, when his soul was out and he was using this magic, he felt so much… nicer. He felt calm, he felt at peace, he felt his smile grow. He felt… kinder when he was using his magic while his soul was out. It really felt _right_ to be doing this for some reason. Not only that, but it was much easier to make the energy flow through him. He could see it now, teaching scared humans how to do this magic exercise to practice controlling their magic. Setting your hand on fire with colored flame was an odd exercise to calm you down, but it felt calming enough right now.

They both turned their heads when they noticed Alphys approaching them. "I have to admit, it's kind of f-fun watching you two experiment with your magic." She said with a bit of a smile.

"So, anything you can tell us about this?" AJ asked, casually motioning towards his hand that was on fire.

"Y-yes, actually. As I said earlier, that is called Soul Magic." Alphys said. "From what I understand, if enough magic builds up inside a human, that magic awakens their Soul Energy. That human can then reach into their soul, like you said, and use that energy for simple forms of magic, or strengthening of their bodies. T-There are seven different potential colors of souls that I know of: Red, Orange, Teal, Blue, Purple, Green, and Yellow. Each color represents a different trait, like kindness or perseverance, and people with those colors are able to use certain 'soul magics' I guess would be what you'd call them. I mean they aren't spells, there is no incantation you need to say or anything like that…

Anyway, people with green souls, like you AJ, are known for barriers and healing magic, for example. Everyone should be able to do that little fire thing you both did with their soul energy, but if you use it right, you can use it for more major soul magic like, again, healing magic."

"So, it sounds like monsters can't use soul magic." The teen commented.

"Y-yes, you're right. Monsters do not have strong enough souls to use them for any magic. But, since we're, you know, made of magic, we use _that_ magic to do things like… create spears or bones." Alphys explained.

"So monsters get pure magic, while humans get soul energy to enhance themselves and use soul based magic?" The boy said as he and his fellow human stood back up.

"That about sums it up… yeah." The lizard answered with a shy nod. "Though, I-I think I remember something about a few humans in the war that used magic like monsters can, b-but they were probably incredibly powerful."

"I can only imagine." AJ said. "Well, I'm just gonna stick to the small things, like learning how to use this stuff right." He held up both his hands and closed his eyes. "And trying to learn… how to… use…" His eyes shot open as his hands started glowing green with a light green mist flowing off them rather than flame. "healing magic…" He said in awe. He looked up and noticed Toriel looking at him proudly. Internally he was a bit proud of himself too. 'There! It isn't a fluke this time! I'm doing this on my own! Just think about healing and focus the energy in the right way. Heh, funny how this seems to come natural to me… These abilities must be built into our souls, just waiting for magic to awaken them and us to learn how to use it… Why did I come to that conclusion?'

* * *

The mayor did his best to walk uphill backwards and face the camera crew following him, all with a smile. The man took up most of the screen, as the camera was zoomed in on him, but the dirt path and the sudden drop they were next to was clear on the right side of the screen.

"I just ask you all to be open minded for the times to come." The mayor continued. "If you want to be angry with anyone for interrupting whatever you were watching, blame me. I'm the one that demanded everything be interrupted for this, and there's a very big reason for that. Our world is about to change, and it is best that you all know what is coming now, and not be caught off guard later by a sight that may be seen as commonplace in the future. You all are wondering what I'm talking about, I'm sure, even the man holding this camera wonders what is going on, judging by his face, but please be patient. As soon as we reach the top, you will all understand why I did this, hopefully. Again, I ask that you remain calm, and open minded, the things you are about to see are not going to hurt us."

Somewhere in there, his voice had become clear to the monsters and the humans, and they all panicked to look welcoming before the crew reached the top of the path and came across them. The monsters stood and looked presentable while the humans stood in the back with their hooded cloaks back on. "You may have heard the tale of a war between humanity and a race of monsters, especially if you live in the area. Well, there's no other way to say it, those weren't stories." The mayor noticed the shocked faces of the camera man and the crew behind him, so he smiled and turned around. "Hello again, everyone."

Most of them awkwardly waved, but Papyrus smiled and waved enthusiastically. "HELLO, HUMANS! I, THE GREAT, PAPYRUS, AM GLAD TO SEE YOU ALL, AS I'M SURE YOU'RE ALL VERY GLAD TO SEE ME. HOWEVER…" Thankfully, sans got his brother to stop ranting about how great he is for a moment.

"Mankind did in fact fight the monster race." The mayor continued. "From what I've been told, the war was a terrible tragedy and was an unnecessary war of fear. We were far stronger than the monsters and defeated them, and what was left of the race was banished underground and trapped with a magic spell. You may have noticed some of these monsters don't look like monsters, well, that's because they aren't all monsters. The two hooded individuals here, who wish to remain anonymous, are humans that fell into the world of the monsters. They made friends with all the monsters and ended up freeing them. You see, when the monsters were sealed away, they were trapped with all the magic in the world as well. These humans used some of that magic and destroyed the barrier. All of this I've been told by the humans themselves. They freed this race of monsters that simply want to come back and live peacefully on the surface.

I know some of you are surely worried right now. I'm sure some of these monsters may appear frightening as well, but I met these monsters and was able to get up close with them for a short time, they are very nice people. The humans themselves have told me nothing but good things about them."

AJ's eyes were wide under his hood. 'DAMN! I didn't know our mayor could talk like this! He took in everything we said like a vacuum! He's delivering this all so well! No wonder he became our mayor!' He thought, thoroughly impressed with this old man who apparently had a hidden passion just waiting to burst out of him.

"I for one, am not going to stand by and let these monsters get thrown into our world without help! I fully intend to support these monsters and help them settle into our society. I have no doubt that some people will discriminate against them, but those of you who would need to remember who we are! We're Americans! We are above such lowly things as racism!" Johnson shouted, full of passion.

Sweatdropping occurred in the background for the one individual who actually paid attention in history class.

"Being that these monsters have come in on such short notice, we can't exactly build a separate town for them in time. At least for now, I have decided that the monsters will be moving in to any housings in the suburbs that are for sale. I hope all of mankind will one day learn to treat them as they would treat other human beings, as equals. And please, try to give them some privacy, they're as new to our world as you are to them, but they are still people, don't overwhelm them."

The teen couldn't help but roll his eyes. He was sure that was going to take awhile.

"Once we understand more about the situation, we will have more details for everyone. For now, if any of you would like to introduce yourselves to the public and to the world, please come here." The mayor requested to the monsters.

The king decided he should step up. He tried to imagine what things were like for the humans and only took a few steps closer, still keeping a fair distance away from the crew, which were wary of him if not terrified. "H-Hello, I am King Asgore Dreemurr. I am the king of all monsterkind." The king said with his deep but gentle tone.

Toriel stepped up to stand in front of Asgore and to his side. "Hello! I am Toriel. I…" She hesitated for a moment, deciding whether she should say this or not. "I am the queen of monsters!" Asgore was shocked for a moment, but he quickly looked hopeful. Toriel glared at him and shot his hope down with an AA gun. "I am only pretending to be the queen because everyone still sees me as such." She whispered to him angrily.

Asgore sank before trying to distract himself by pointing to Undyne and Alphys, which were behind them. "Oh! And these two are my Royal Scientist and the captain of my Royal Guard!" He said cheerfully.

Alphys tried to hide behind the fish monster, while Undyne herself gave Asgore an annoyed look. "Asgore! The whole point of staying back here was so we wouldn't get as much attention!"

"Oh! I'm sorry! I only thought I should introduce you all!" Asgore said apologetically.

AJ smiled a bit. 'Well, I guess this helps show how human they all are.' He figured. Suddenly, red boots stomped past him.

"NO NEED TO INTRODUCE ME, ASGORE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN INTRODUCE HIMSELF!" Papyrus said with his usual gusto.

The teen was quick to run in front of Papyrus and push against his chest armor to stop him. "Hey! Why don't you stay back here, huh? The humans can all see you perfectly fine from here." He suggested.

"WHAT!? BUT HOW WILL THE OTHER HUMANS APPRECIATE MY TRUE GREATNESS FROM SO FAR AWAY!?" Papyrus asked.

"Look, Papyrus, just stay back here, okay? It'll be fine." AJ said.

"Hmm… if you say so…" Papyrus said reluctantly before smiling at the camera crew once again. "HELLO AGAIN, HUMANS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CANNOT WAIT TO MEET YOU ALL! I AM SURE WE'RE ALL GOING TO GET ALONG VERY WELL! I ALSO CANNOT WAIT TO SHARE MY EXPERTLY COOKED SPAGHETTI WITH SO MANY PEOPLE!"

"Alright, I think that's enough, pap." Sans commented with a light smile.

"Alright, well, we all have a lot to do here, so." Johnson started. "I will let you go on with your lives now. Later today, I will have more details about the future of our world to give to you all. Until then, be safe everyone! And those of you who will be seeing monsters in your neighborhood, again, please, treat them fairly. They are people like you and me, so don't go harassing them. They will take time to get used to our world and won't know how things work up here, so be patient with them. Someday, we'll all look back on the events of today and future days, and I hope I can be proud of what we've done and how we treated monsterkind." Once the crew made it clear they had cut the feed, the mayor spoke up again. "Alright, you can go now."

"What!? J-Just go!?" The camera guy asked, shocked.

"Of course! I still have a lot to talk about with these monsters and you all don't need to be a part of it!" The mayor answered, motioning for them to go back down the path. "I'm sure you all have more important things to do." The crew was less than happy with this. There was so much more they could learn, but most of the crew had respect for the mayor and trusted him, so they left. "Well! It's been done! The world knows about monsters now!" He said as he turned back to the monsters. He then stroked his neck. "Ugh. My throat's going to be dead by the end of all this…"

"Well we would not mind letting you take a break if you want." Toriel spoke up, worried for the man.

"Nonsense! I have much to do and don't have time to wait!" Johnson said strongly. "Let's get on with this! I may know a lot now, but I need all the details you can possibly give me. For one, what currency did you use down there?"

"Gold coins." Frisk answered.

"What?" The mayor asked, not sure he heard that right. The girl walked up to him and held up a handful of gold coins. "Incredible! Well you all will be able to pay for the houses easily with all this!"

* * *

Things started moving pretty quickly after that. The mayor spent the rest of that day ignoring the messages he was getting on his phone and instead meeting all the monsters and talking with whoever would talk to him. He took notes about everything they told him about monsters, their history, and, more importantly, magic.

Then for the next few days, AJ, Frisk, and Johnson looked over all the houses for sale in the smaller town. They checked all of them out online before going to see a majority of them personally. People in the area that noticed the mayor jumped on him. They were either angry and demanding answers, they did just get told that monsters were being thrown into their area without even asking them if that was alright first. Or, they were scared, and wanted to know as much as they could. What were they like? When would they be coming? He told them they would move into the various houses in a few days and they would get all the information they should need soon enough.

A day before they started moving the monsters in, the information was posted on the internet. All they knew about their history, everything they thought they should know about the various monsters, and what they looked like, so people knew what to expect to see. A more important notice would go out in a few days about magic, souls, and a number for people to call if they start gaining strange magical powers. But, until then, the monsters needed to be shown their new homes.

The two humans had to split up and work with the monsters as they moved in. They protected the monsters from the few people who tried to harass them as they came in, and just generally helped them get settled in.

Grillby's house had an empty space next to it that was the perfect size for the familiar Snowdin diner to be relocated to. Papyrus and sans had their own house. Undyne and Alphys had a building with an incredibly large basement which they converted into a lab for the royal scientist. Napstablook and Mettaton lived together. Asgore had a place for himself. The humans found the perfect house for them and Toriel to live in. Monsters were scattered around in houses everywhere throughout the suburbs.

The humans that stayed where they lived prepared for the worst. The worst never came though. Sure, the monsters were very excited, and so noise was an issue. Besides that though, the monsters were shockingly bearable for many humans. After a few days, most early conflicts had been worked out as monsters started to get a bit used to the human world and human rules. The news that humans would regain magic abilities brought some fear back into some people, but some were actually excited. Some groups of people talked about what color soul they hoped they would get and wondered what magic they would be able to use.

Seeing monsters was a strange thing, but some people actually warmed up to the monsters. Some even had chance encounters with monsters that led to them actually becoming friends with some of the creatures. Papyrus especially had many friends since he was so insistent on befriending humans. Of course, some couldn't stand him, but he never noticed.

That didn't change the fact that discrimination existed though. It became an obvious thing very quickly. Some houses were egged, some monsters were harassed, some shops refused to serve monsters. Some people learned the hard way that some monsters shouldn't be messed with though. Some people went too far with Undyne and quickly learned why she was Captain of the Royal Guard. Some people tried to hurt the naïve Papyrus, and got an idea of what it meant to have a bad time. Some learned what houses to avoid, but they always harassed monsters every time they thought they could get away with it. The media was a pain as well. Unsurprisingly, they didn't care about people's privacy.

* * *

 **Alright so I got carried away writing chapter two and it ended up being a 12000 word chapter. I realized that was kind of unnecessary, so I split it into three parts. So chapters two through four are all basically one chapter, just split, which is why I'm going to post all three parts one day after another, and also why the endings to two and three are going to be abrupt.**

 **Have a great day!**


	3. Welcome Back To Normal Life

**ENJOY, HUMANS!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.3

* * *

Monsters had only been in the surface world for about two weeks, but honestly, AJ thought it could have been much worse. Still though, he got the occasional reminders of why he hated humanity and hung out with monsters. Some people don't learn, some people don't care, some just refuse to respect monsters.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?"

'I can't even walk to the store today?' AJ thought as he turned around to face some guy in a hoodie. "Come again?" He asked plainly.

"Why do you live with monsters? Don't you know what they do to people!?"

He raised an eyebrow at the person and gave them a look like they were an absolute idiot. "Treat them with respect, unlike people like you." He answered. The person let out an annoyed "Tch" and walked away from him. AJ briefly wondered how, even after all this time, he was still surprised by the stupidity in humanity, before continuing his trip to the store.

He walked to the grocery store, got a carton of eggs, and went to pay for them and leave. The whole time he could hear the other people in the store whispering about him, and he could also tell they were avoiding him. Some of them didn't like him because he lived with monsters, but most people were afraid of him because of his magic.

He found it incredibly stupid. All he could do was make himself physically stronger, create green walls, and use healing magic. The only threatening magic he had was covering his hand in fire, and touching it actually felt very good, so that was a false threat. But, they were all terrified of what they didn't understand, and tried not to get near him, and he couldn't pretend to be surprised. The teen behind the counter saw how _done_ he looked, and he noticed how people were looking at him when he wasn't looking. The teen behind the desk could only give him an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry you have to deal with this." He said.

"Eh, its fine. I appreciate you not avoiding me for having probably the most peaceful of all possible magics." AJ deadpanned as he handed the money for the eggs.

"W-Well, I figure I might as well get used to it if what we were told is true." The worker admitted.

"Smart." AJ complimented. "Have a good day." He took his eggs and left the store.

On his walk back to his home, he passed by a few monsters and waved to them. The two rabbit monsters waved back and smiled at one of the two humans they knew they could always trust. The teen looked back ahead of him only to see a group of three smirking humans just waiting for him. "Hey there, monster lover!" One of them greeted. He continued to walk up to the group until they were in range to try and fight him.

"Pardon me." The cloaked teen said suddenly, creating a green wall between him and them and simply walking around them. They were quick to turn and try to antagonize him again, but he put another wall between them and continued to walk beside them.

"Hey! Get back here you cowa-" The human was cut off when he ran face first into a barrier and fell back, with his friends just barely catching him.

"Bye!" The mage waved with a chuckle as he walked away.

"Hey! You better watch your back!"

The teen stopped before skipping towards them backwards and spinning around to face them at the end. They were close enough to hit him, but his strange smile made them hesitate. "How stupid are you?" AJ asked. "You wouldn't threaten a family that has guns, so why would you threaten a family full of people who can use magic?" The guy who had spoken up realized he shouldn't have opened his mouth without thinking first, and didn't respond. "Again, bye." He said before turning to walk away again. The thoughts flowing through his head as he continued walking home were less than friendly. 'I should have said 'And since you're probably too _stupid_ to get it, I'll make it clear for you. That was a counter-threat!' AND, I should have said 'Touch my family and I'll kill you!' He thought angrily. 'Ugh. They would probably just whine about it on the internet and make me seem evil.' He thought.

He didn't have to walk for much longer before he reached his house. He stood before the door and turned around to make sure no one had followed him. All he saw was Snowdrake's "fathah" on the other side of the street, floating around on their lawn. The human smiled as he took out his key and unlocked the door before entering and locking it again. "Toriel! I'm back!"

The door opened up to a hall that went straight to the other end of the house. Turning left after walking in gives you the living room, complete with couch and TV. Turning right leads to the kitchen and the dinner table. Walking down the hall and turning right leads to the laundry room, and there's a door at the back of the laundry room leading to the back porch and backyard. Taking a left at the end of the hall leads you up some stairs to a hall that goes across the house's second floor. There are three doors upstairs, one for Toriel's room, one is the bathroom, and the last door on the far right is the bedroom for the humans.

The monster woman peeked out from the kitchen. "Welcome home, AJ!" Toriel greeted cheerfully.

He smiled back at his 'mother' as he walked into the kitchen. He was in his home, and he wasn't hurt., so he really only had reasons to smile at that moment, and seeing her child happy made Toriel's smile even brighter. "Here's the eggs." The teen said and handed her the carton.

"Ah! Wonderful! Thank you." Toriel said gratefully.

"Well I can't have you not making those pancakes in the morning." The boy commented.

The monster chuckled. "Of course. I know how much you two love those."

The boy's eyes widened in realization. "Oh. She's at school right now, isn't she?"

"I am sure she will be fine." Toriel waved off his worry.

"Yeah, you two are ever the optimists, but I really wish they'd just build that damn school already." The human complained.

"It takes time to build a school, even a small one."

"I know, I know…" He said, annoyed.

"There is no need to worry. I have faith in Frisk. She is far too strong to be affected by any bullies or any other school stresses." Toriel said confidently.

"Yeah, you're honestly probably right. She can be stupidly stubborn when she feels like it." AJ noted.

"Oh really? I thought that was a human trait." Goat Mom commented with an amused smile.

"Oh ha ha, very funny." He responded, failing to hide his smile. "Well, I'm pretty sure I don't need to go anywhere right now, so I'll be around."

"Alright."

The human went into the living room and lied down on the couch. He didn't bother turning on the tv since there was probably nothing interesting on. He just laid there and took in his surroundings with a smile. It may have been two weeks and he may have only been in the Underground for a few days, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he felt totally different now than before he fell, he was content with where he was. He was in Toriel's house, he was safe here, and he was actually happy here. All he wanted to do was lie there and enjoy this feeling that he was still getting used to.

Ever the realist, he couldn't help but think of how humans gaining magic would likely ruin things for him and everyone else, monster or human. Accidents would happen, people would abuse their power, people would discriminate against those who gained magic even though they will have had no choice in the matter. Thankfully, Alphys said that she thought it would be a few more weeks before that started happening, so he would enjoy relative peace while he could. Specifically she had guessed it would take around seven weeks, and it had been two already, so they had another five that they could enjoy without other humans using magic.

After about fifteen minutes, he stood up from the couch with a smile on his face. He walked over to the kitchen and saw Toriel was at the dinner table, looking up things on her phone. She enjoyed learning about the world they now lived in. "Toriel? I'm gonna go out and check up on other monsters."

"Oh, well that sounds like fun." Goat Mom commented.

"No, it's potentially dangerous, but I still want make sure everyone is doing alright." AJ corrected. He held his arms out wide and Toriel stood up to do the same. They hugged and the human enjoyed the feeling of her fur against his skin. "Sorry for not sticking around for long, but Frisk will be out of school in a while, so I'll make sure to send her your way."

"Do not worry about me. If my child wants to go with you, then let her." Toriel requested gently as they ended their hug.

"But, I'm going to the lab. I might test some _dangerous weapon_ while I'm there." He said as if he was a spooky ghost. "You don't want her to get hurt, do you?"

"On second thought… maybe you should send her here." The monster suggested.

"Mama Toriel! Are you saying that you don't think Frisk is strong enough to deal with whatever happens!?" The teen said accusingly, not even hesitating to turn this around on her.

Toriel smirked in amusement. "My child is far too determined to falter after all this time."

"Yes, you more or less said that fifteen minutes ago." The human pointed out.

"Oh. I did say that." Toriel realized.

The boy laughed. "Alright, I really should get going. Bye."

"Farewell. Be safe."

He silently chuckled. He wasn't used to having someone say that to him yet. "I will." He promised.

The first thing he did once outside was cross the road to the Snowdrake household. He knocked and eventually the drake he was more familiar with answered opened the door. "Huh? Oh, it's you!"

"Hey, Snowdrake! I just wanted to check on you guys real quick. Is everything… _cool_ over here?" The human asked.

The monster let out a laugh. "Yeah, everything's… _chill_ here." The teen monster answered. "Some humans come and bother us sometimes, but the jerks don't like my jokes, so I just make ice puns till they go away."

"Hah! That's smart! Well, glad you're all okay. I'm gonna go check up on other monsters." The boy stated before turning around.

"Alright then. Have a _chill_ day!"

He shook his head as he walked away. 'He really needs to get some new material. Ice puns are fine and all, but there are only so many you can make!' He marched on and soon reached the house of the cousins. He held back a frown when Mettaton was the one who answered the door.

"Oh! Well what a pleasant surprise!" The humanoid robot exclaimed with a smile. "I didn't know you'd be stopping by, darling."

The boy shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to check up on the monsters today. Everything good over here?"

"Of course! Come on in, darling! I'm just practicing for my next show at the moment." *Poses dramatically* "Why not check on Blooky?"

"Will do. I'm still surprised that your show seems to have taken off so far." The human commented.

"What can I say? Even the humans know a star when they see one!" Mettaton said proudly and made an extravagant pose.

The boy sweatdropped. "Right…" He decided to leave while he had the chance. Mettaton had modified the house quite a bit and he had to navigate through a maze of fashion rooms just to find the stairs. After making it up the stairs, he had to navigate through the maze up there before finding the one normal room in the house. He knocked. "Napstablook? It's me, AJ."

"Oh? Come in…" He heard the ghost say. The teen walked in and saw the headphone-wearing ghost actually smile just a bit when he walked in.

"Hey there, Blooky." The human greeted with a friendly smile before walking up to the ghost and wrapping his arms around him. Even though he couldn't actually touch the ghost, it really appreciated the effort. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay… I was actually working on my next remix… Do you want to hear it?" The ghost asked with a bit of hesitation.

"Of course!" The teen answered enthusiastically. The ghost leaned its head forward and the human gently took the headphones off him and put them on himself. The music was already playing, but the techno music that was coming through had him bobbing his head in moments. He actually had to hold himself back from dancing to the beat. "DAMN Blooky! This is _awesome_!" The ghost's eyes widened a bit at how passionate he was about it. "The beat to this is amazing! This is the best thing you've ever made in my opinion!"

"Oh, well… thank you." Blooky said with a shy smile.

"Hey, um, I gotta go check on other monsters and make sure they're doing alright, but keep up the _great_ work, okay?" The boy requested before handing the headphones back to the ghost and turning to leave.

"O-Okay." Napstablook said, sad to see his friend leave.

"Hey, don't cry, okay? You're doing great and you've got friends that care about you. You'll be okay." AJ said before leaving. He honestly didn't know why he said that. Well, he did, he wanted to make his friend feel better, but he didn't usually say things like that, it just kind of came out before he could think about it. Still, he felt that what he said was true for Blooky. "Good luck with your next… thing, Mettaton." He said before leaving the building.

"Thank you, darling!"

He checked on a few more homes belonging to monsters and even passed by a few more monsters walking along for whatever reasons. Eventually he reached another specific house and knocked.

"SANS! SOMEONE IS AT OUR DOOR!"

"I heard, bro."

"WELL I'M BUSY COOKING! GO SEE WHO'S THERE! IT MIGHT BE ANOTHER HUMAN FAN WHO WANTS TO SEE ME!"

The moment the door was opened the boy smiled and waved at his friend. "Well, you're not wrong about it being a human." Sans said loud enough that Papyrus could hear.

When AJ and Frisk saw the inside of this house, they knew they had to let the skelebros live here. It's layout was nearly identical to their house in Snowdin. The differences were that there was a bathroom between the rooms for the two brothers, and there was a door in the back of the kitchen to get to the backyard. Oh, and the sink was at a normal height, despite Papyrus trying to fix that 'problem'.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? ARE THEY NOT A FAN WHO WANTS TO SEE ME!?" Papyrus asked from the kitchen.

"No, paps, its uh, someone more familiar." Sans said vaguely.

There was a pause before Papyrus leaned away from his cooking to look towards the door. "THE HUMANS? *GASP* THE TALL HUMAN! IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU, AJ! HAVE YOU COME TO HAVE SOME OF MY GLORIOUS SPAGHETTI?"

"Sorry Papyrus, I can't stay and eat, I have to go soon." The teen said apologetically. "I just came to check up on you two. Oh! The dogs say 'hi' by the way."

"Do they now?" sans asked with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile.

"Well, I mean, Lesser and Greater Dog seemed happy at the mention of you two… Doggo said 'Yeah, whatever'… and the Dogi said to say hi, so… kind of?" AJ admitted.

"Heh, that sounds about right." sans said. "Well, thanks for checking, but you don't have to worry about us. Papyrus and I can take care of ourselves."

"And yet I will continue to do so anyway." The human said matter-of-factly. "Well, if everything's fine here, I'll be leaving to catch Frisk when she gets out of school. Oh, and sans? We work at the same place, so don't think you can get away with missing work. I'll notice you aren't there." He added before leaving.

"I am hurt that you would even suggest that." He heard sans comment as he walked out the door. He rolled his eyes in response.

"FAREWELL! SAY HELLO TO FRISK FOR ME!" Papyrus called out plenty loud enough for the teen to hear him even after he closed the door.

Compared to a walk between any homes where monsters lived, walking to the school was a much lengthier endeavor, so he pulled out his headphones and put them on before turning them on and finding some music on his phone to occupy his thoughts. Music made him think about the mix that Blooky had made, and he wished he had that on his phone so he could listen to it. Unfortunately that would have to wait until the ghost was satisfied enough with his own work to post it online and make it available for download.

Taking this long walk to the school made him realize how he acted around others. When he walked by a monster, any monster, he would look at them and smile at them. If any humans even came into his vision, he would avoid looking at them at all costs. That part wasn't new, but his willingness to look any monster in the eyes surprised him a bit.

'Well, people don't give me much reason to interact with them. Maybe some of them will open their minds a bit when they end up having magic forced on them! No… that's wrong. I shouldn't hope that people get discriminated along with me. No, they should just get a swift punishment for hurting monsters, and then they should get to move on with their lives. Unless they don't learn their lesson of course, then maybe they do deserve something more prolonged. Maybe as more people get magic, people will realize they shouldn't discriminate against their own kind and stop being jerks? Heh, since when did I get so hopeful?'

He looked up and realized he was standing in front of the school. He noticed some parents had already pulled up nearby in their cars, while the school buses were in their own area. He thought back to when his parents would pick him up from school when he was a little kid. He deadpanned at nothing when he remembered that they were always late and he ended up standing around doing nothing. He heard what he had to assume was the school bell ringing and before long, kids of varied ages were running around the place. After two weeks, some of the kids had no doubt been told about him and had somehow learned to recognize him. Those kids avoided him as much as they could with clear fear in their eyes. Other kids, however, didn't know about him or just didn't even notice him, and they walked right past him with carefree smiles.

One particularly small child tripped and scrapped his knee on the concrete. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" The kid whispered. They tried to stand up and act like nothing had happened, but it was clear that it hurt more then they showed and they couldn't get up quite yet.

"Ouch. You okay?" AJ asked the boy.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine. I'm okay. Don't worry." The kid said quietly and tried to stand up.

"Hey, let me see that." The teen requested politely. He crouched down and looked closely at the kid's scrape. It wasn't that bad, but it probably stung a lot and that could make it hard to stand up at first if you're a little kid. "You know, you're a pretty tough kid, acting like you aren't even hurt. You're not crying like I would have been at your age." He commented. He looked around for a moment before covering the boy's knee with both his hands, one hand hid the green glow of his other hand. It was a small scrape, so even a small amount of healing magic got rid of it in a few seconds, even though he wasn't all that advanced in his Soul Magic abilities. He stood up and smiled at the confused boy while putting a finger to his lips. "Shh. Don't tell anyone, kay?"

The kid laughed and smiled back at him as he stood up all the way. "Okay!" They said before running off towards a mass of kids that were waiting to cross the street.

"AJ!"

He spun around to face the school when he heard his name. He saw a kid wearing a familiar sweater running towards him at full speed. "Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait!" The girl ignored him and jumping-tackled him. It took a lot of effort to keep from being knocked down by her. "Gah! Frisk! You're not a small child! You're like, ten or something! You shouldn't do that!" He chided the child he had caught.

"Well no one told me you would be here when I got out!" The girl pointed out, laughing over the teen's shoulder.

"Alright, once again, your hugs are way too tight… let me breathe, please…" The boy begged. He let out a thankful sigh when he was able to breathe easily again. "Why do you always go for the neck?" He whined as he set her down. The girl simply laughed. "Anyway, how are you doing? Did school go okay?" He asked as they began to walk in the direction of their house.

"Yep! Well, a few kids did try to bully me, but I didn't mind." Frisk answered.

"What did they do?" AJ asked, failing to keep the threatening tone from sneaking into his question.

"It's okay, AJ. You don't have to worry about me." The girl said, clearly not worried.

Her friend, however, was. "I'm gonna worry about you while you're in that school! You really have no reason to be there." He looked around and saw any groups of people in sight weren't near them. "I have magic that I can defend myself with, but we still don't know what all you can do with your red soul. I don't like you only having dodging and running to protect yourself."

"That's what I used for most of our time in the Underground anyway." Frisk pointed out.

"Yes, but I was also there to fight instead of you. I was there to protect you."

"And I was there to protect _you_!" The girl cut in with a bright smile.

He rolled his eyes. "You are so childish."

"Yes I am, and I'm going to enjoy it while I can." The younger one responded.

The older one frowned a bit at that. He came to a realization when they had been on the surface for about a week. Frisk lived with parents that hurt her and let her get hurt, they didn't protect her at all, they didn't care for her at all. Frisk never got to have a real childhood. Knowing that, he cared about her being childish even less. She of all people deserved to have a childhood while they could, she was just making up for lost time, lost childishness, lost happiness, and he could never be actually mad at that.

"So how was _your_ day? I'm guessing you sat around till you had to come get me?" The girl teased.

"Hey!" He pretended to be offended before dropping the act. "Normally you would be right, but I actually _didn't_ sit around all day."

"Oh really?" She asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Yes!" He answered immediately. "I went and got some eggs for Toriel, then I went out and checked on a lot of the monsters to see how they were doing. Papyrus says hi, by the way. After that, I came over _of my own free will_ to see how you were doing after school."

Frisk giggled. "Well thank you."

"You're welcome. Now get home." AJ requested. "Toriel's probably been lonely since I've been gone so long."

"What!?" The child whined.

"What do you mean, 'what'!? I have an actual job that I need to actually do!" The boy countered, smiling.

"Why not let me go wi-"

"No! Like I said! Goat Mom is sad, go make her not sad!" He requested, gesturing with both arms towards their house.

The girl chuckled before giving in. She wasn't going to leave Toriel alone, even if it meant that she would miss whatever cool things might happen at her friend's job. "Alright, fine! See you later!" She waved as she turned and went one way while her friend turned and went the opposite direction.

* * *

 **Have a great day!**


	4. Testing, Fun, and Much Needed Comfort

***Listening to happy Undertale remixes while writing happy scenes…  
*It fills you with Determination.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.4

* * *

The walk to the anime loving couple's house was a long one, having to go to nearly the other side of the town to get to there. Luckily, he didn't run into any humans willing to cause trouble with him on the way, just a few dirty looks. He walked up to the house only to be struck with a familiar feeling. Standing before the house, he could hear a piano being played. It was the exact same tune that Undyne had played before he, Frisk, and Papyrus had entered Undyne's house in the Underground. He walked along the side of the house and looked through a window to see Undyne playing the piano while Alphys was standing nearby. The couple was clearly having a moment, a moment that he was going to have to end. He felt bad for a second, but then he realized something. 'HEY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING RIGHT NOW!'

He stomped back over to the front door and knocked loudly on the door. The lizard monster opened the door after realizing who it was. "Alphys!" He exclaimed the moment the door opened. "Shouldn't you be working right now!?"

"O-Oh! I-I was on b-break!" Alphys explained quickly.

The human sighed. 'Fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.' "Well, I'm here now, so break's over. We need to actually work on things or else we don't get paid." He said before walking in after the monster got out of the way.

"Oh! Hey, punk!" Undyne greeted before standing up from her seat at the piano to walk over to them.

"Heyo."

"U-Undyne, we're um… going to go back to working i-in my lab now." Alphys explained.

The fish lady looked a bit disappointed. "Oh. Well, you two be careful then."

"We will." The teen said certainly. They walked down into the basement, aka the lab. The lab consisted of three bright white rooms. One was the large room the middle, and the other rooms were to either side of the large center testing area. The two smaller rooms had windows that let them view the center safely behind the walls. "Alright, so… what are we working on today?"

"T-Try not to get so excited. I don't know if I h-have anything even close to being ready for t-testing." Alphys said hesitantly.

"Hey, don't worry Alphys." He said calmly. "We don't _have_ to test stuff. I am simply a bodyguard, and if needed, assistant. So you just take your time and do what you do." A tick mark appeared on his head. "Speaking of _assistants_ …" He pulled out his phone with a flourish, pressed the screen to call someone without even looking, and held the phone in front of him. In response, sans teleported behind him. "SANS!" He shouted angrily as he spun around to face the sweatdropping skeleton.

Sans could see plainly that the human was annoyed with him. "Heeeey bud… I'm here now." He announced.

AJ sighed and facepalmed. "Both of you are supposed to be working _before_ I get here…" He whined before walking over to the stairs and leaning against the wall next to them. "Whatever. Tell me if either of you need help from me."

Both monsters glanced at each other, feeling just a bit bad for disappointing their friend, before going to the opposing rooms to get to work. The human turned on his wireless headphones again and stood around near the stairs for awhile. That got boring quickly and he ended up walking around the center room for awhile. Occasionally one of the scientists would ask for help from the other scientist or from him. He appreciated whenever they asked for him to do some menial task like carry something or hold something still or whatever, because he knew they did it to help alleviate his boredom for a moment.

The far half of the center room actually dips down slightly, and that would be the place they would normally test out potentially dangerous tech. The human, however, liked to use the area to practice his magic or his fighting abilities when he felt like it and no one needed his help at the moment. Walking, listening to music, helping, using magic, and punching and kicking things that weren't there make up the hours he spends here usually. Sometimes he would walk into their areas out of curiosity for what they were working on, but he tried not to do that too much out of fear that he was bothering them and distracting them from their work.

Occasionally a thought would come to his mind when he looked at Alphys. He would remember how she was before all this, and how she was when monsters were first freed. She seemed to have improved at the time, but then her insecurities started showing again. Eventually she caved and confided with her friends about a few things, like her feelings for Undyne, how she feels about herself and what she does. Her friends all showed her then that they cared for her and wanted to help her feel better about herself, and it meant a lot to her. She told them there was something she needed to do, something she needed to confront, and she went back into the Underground alone. She came back a day later and told them she had confronted her fears and her mistakes, and she's been so much better ever since.

Occasionally a few monsters would go into the Underground again. They'd say they just wanted to walk around in their old home for a bit, but that isn't the case. They're visiting some old friends, and old family members. It's best that humans never know about them, and the rest of monster kind doesn't really need to know either, all that matters is that things are better now. Maybe not what some would call 'perfect', but it's better than them thinking that their loves ones were dead.

"Alright, I know the day's almost over for us, so I wanted to try s-something." Alphys spoke up, stepping out of her room on the left side of the lab.

"What do ya got?" sans asked.

"I've been working on this for days, b-but I think it's ready for testing." The lizard answered, holding a white metal object with a lot of wires connected to the bottom of it and running back into her area of the lab.

"Did someone say… testing?" AJ asked after a dramatic pause.

Alphys chuckled a bit at his hopeful and excited expression. "Yes, I did. Here you go." She said as she handed the device to him.

He started slowly walking towards the testing area, making sure the long wires weren't getting caught on anything. "So, what is this? It kind of looks like a hilt." He noted.

The lizard let out a disappointed and annoyed sigh. "Yes. As you know, the humans that are paying us w-want us to make useful technologies by combining magic and metal. Y-You probably also know that those humans are really only interested in us making weapons with the use of magic. So, here we are, with my first potential… weapon." She looked and saw the teen was patiently waiting. He wasn't going to start until she said to start. She appreciated that. "I-It took me awhile, but I think I finally have a potentially useful technology here. The Soul Energy that humans use can only do certain things depending on their Soul Trait. The technology in that device should, i-if it works, allow you to use your soul energy for whatever purpose the device is meant for. Go ahead and press that red button on it when you're ready." She said as she and sans took a few steps back.

"Alright." 'Red buttons, those things you are never supposed to press…' AJ thought before holding the hilt at arm's length and pressing the button. He felt something in the device shift. As far as he knew, he couldn't put his soul energy into an abject, he could only let it flow within himself and use it for soul magic. After all, he tried to put his magic into a pencil just a few day ago, but it wouldn't work.

However, he now had the strange feeling that the device was ready to accept energy from his soul. Knowing that was the idea of this thing, he went ahead and let his soul energy flow through his arm and into the device. His magical energy actually wasn't stopped by the physical object and flowed into it as easily as it would a part of his body. After a moment, light green energy shot out of the hilt and took the form of a familiar rectangular blade. "Whoa!" He slowly waved the blade around, careful to not hit himself or the wires. "Don't think I don't notice how the shape matches my machete." He commented with a smirk.

"I figured it would be easier for you to test it." Alphys explained. Being made of soul energy, the blade had no weight and he was able to swing it around with ease. Though the fact that the only weight was in the hilt kind of threw him off, as he was used to swinging a blade with a totally different center of mass. He hesitantly moved his finger towards the blade, and when he saw Alphys didn't try to stop him, he touched it, and realized the magic hadn't taken the form of a lightsaber that could hurt you just by touching it. His soul magic had somehow taken the shape and form of a physical object, minus the weight. It was, for all intents and purposes, his machete blade. "This is incredible though! I can't believe it worked on the first try!" The lizard exclaimed.

The energy blade fizzled away. "You just had to say it, didn't you?" The boy asked before chuckling and pressing the button to turn the device off.

"B-But just imagine the possibilities of such a technology!" Alphys exclaimed enthusiastically. "O-Obviously I need to w-work on it some more… b-but there is so much more I could do with this! There are so many things humans might be able to do with this, things besides weapons! I have to go write this down!" She ran off back to her area and quickly wrote the experiment down. 'It worked! It really worked! The computer inside it made the soul energy take exactly the requested shape! The energy didn't just fly away and the thing didn't explode! This went so much better than I thought it would! The computing power of surface world computers continues to amaze me!' She thought as she wrote down all important observations she had made and what she might need to do next.

"Hehe. Well I'm glad we ended the day on a good _note_." Sans commented. The human nodded in agreement and chuckled at the pun. "Well… be seeing ya." He said before teleporting away.

"Alright, well see ya later Alphys." The human called out before going to walk away. He figured she was nose deep in her notes right now, so he would just leave her be. He went up the stairs and noticed Undyne splayed out on the couch and watching the news. She looked bored.

"Ugh. You know, seeing the human news is always a hard reminder that anime isn't real." Undyne grumbled before turning off the tv and jumping up from the couch and slamming her fist into her open palm. "Hey! Wanna fight for a bit!?" She asked.

"I would, but Toriel wants me to come home after work here." AJ said apologetically. "No reason we can't tomorrow though!" He added, hoping to cheer her up.

Undyne grumbled and fell back onto the couch. "Fine… I guess I'll just be bored for the rest of the day."

The teen sighed. "Alright, come on, get up." He requested. "I'll do a quick little hand to hand right now, and _that's it_ , alright?"

"YES! Let's do this, punk!" The monster shouted, enthusiastic as ever. They both went back down the stairs and walked over to the testing area. "You're going down!"

The human rolled his eyes at her overexcitement as Alphys came out from her room in the lab. "Undyne? What are you two doing?" She asked, confused.

"Don't mind us! We're just having a quick little spar!" The fish lady said as she got into a fighting stance with both fists raised.

AJ let his right foot slide back as he got into a fighting stance as well. He tried to keep a calm expression, but as his hands started producing green flame, he couldn't keep himself from showing the same smirk that Undyne had.

The monster was quick to run in for a punch aimed for his face, but he was equally quick to try for a straight upward kick. Undyne blocked the kick with her free hand while continuing with her attack. The human ducked under her punch and tried to bring his fist into her side while he was in her guard. She twisted to avoid it and tried to grab the opponent she was standing over. He ducked down to the ground quickly and spun around and sweeping-kicked her. She landed on one hand and used it to spin on the ground and try to kick him. He just barely leaned away so he didn't get a kick to the chin and kept that distance to see what she was going to do. He saw her use the momentum of the missed kick to continue her spin and stand up, so he acted quickly.

She finished the 360 spin to stand up before jumping to aerial kick him as he stood up as well. Instead, he got his left arm under her legs as if to put her into a bridal carry while she was still in the air. He pushed towards her while grabbing one of her arms with his right hand and pressing it against her chest. He then put all his strength into slamming her back into the ground as hard as he could. He jumped back while Alphys made a worried noise. The fish monster grinned at the boy before standing up. "Heh. That was a good one." She commented before rushing him again.

He honestly wasn't that surprised to find she wasn't too fazed by that. No matter how much that hurt she was going to power through it, and he knew that.

She quickly struck with her left fist, and he caught it in his right hand. She tried with her other hand, and he stopped the strike with his left wrist. She quickly kicked his left side before gripping him by his left wrist and yanking him forward and past her. He stumbled forwards before turning around just as she sweeping-kicked him. She jumped at him while he was down and he pressed both his feet against her chest to keep her away. She quickly changed tactics and grabbed his legs before lifting him off the ground. He was quick to punch her in the gut while he was being held off the ground, so she threw him over her head and went to throw him into the ground. Only the moment he started to go down he created a horizontal barrier in the air which he hit instead of the floor, though that didn't keep him from behind hurt. Undyne hadn't expected him to hit a solid object so quickly and lost her grip. When she looked up she saw through the floating green platform and saw him recovering from his daze.

"Hey! If you're gonna use magic…" She trailed off as a spear appeared in her hand.

He looked down through the platform and saw the spear. "Wait! Wait! I'll come down! I'll come down!" He said quickly. Undyne relaxed a bit and dissipated her spear. The platform vanished and the boy feel, but then another one appeared and he landed on it before kicking her in the chest and knocking her down. She took a moment to regain her lost air before glaring at the boy who was starting to run away from her. "Hey! GET BACK HERE!" She shouted.

The human stopped before the stairs when three energy spears hit the walls around him. He turned around with a fearful smile and a green barrier between him and the angry fish monster. "Sorry! You're gonna have to wait till our actual fight tomorrow!" He said before running away, the barrier soon disappearing and allowing Undyne to follow.

"GET BACK HERE, AJ! YOU PUNK!"

"Undyne! Wait!" Alphys called out as she went to follow her girlfriend. She was able to stop Undyne just before she went outside to keep throwing spears at the human. That would have scared a lot of people, which Undyne was able to realize before rushing out.

He didn't care if he looked like an idiot, he kept running at full sprint till he was far enough away to feel safe. He knew that Undyne wasn't following him, but he would rather be safe than sorry in case she still comes out to chase him. Eventually he was pretty sure he was safe, so he began walking back towards his home. He was glad she hadn't kept chasing him, since she would have been scared any humans that saw it as they understandably took the sight the wrong way. Then he thought about it… him running down the street while spears were crashing down all around him… "Pfft! Hahahaha!" and he personally found the image hilarious! But, of course, he knew she wasn't going to kill him, while no one else knew that. 'See!? The horrible monsters even turned on one of the humans that saved them!' Yeah, he wouldn't be able to blame them for thinking that.

* * *

He eventually closed the door to his favorite place, and before he could even announce his return, he saw Frisk get up from the couch and start running at him. "Oh no you don't." He said, creating a wall in front of him so he wouldn't be tackled again. The girl smirked as her hand glowed red and she jumped at him as if the barrier wasn't there. Her red hand hit the barrier first and it shattered from her touch, creating a hole in it the size of her body and allowing her to tackle him anyway. "Agh! I hate that you can do that!" He complained, but hugged the girl back anyway.

"So, what cool stuff did you test?" Frisk asked, releasing him. "Without me…" She mumbled just enough for him to hear, getting chuckle from him.

"Hehe. Well, Alphys is working on some tech that lets you shape your soul energy into stuff. It worked for a moment, made my soul energy into a blade like my machete." He explained as they both sat down on the couch.

"Whoa, cool!" The girl exclaimed.

"A blade! That is dangerous!" Toriel pointed out, from the kitchen.

"Well, that's just the one test. She seems to think she can do other things with it." AJ countered. He knew what Toriel thought of Alphys, and didn't want her to think the lizard was a bad person any more than she already does. "I mean, I see the potential too. I don't know how the stuff works, but it could remove the need to make certain tools, like a screwdriver. You could just put your soul energy into the thing and it would take the shape of a tool. That's a lot of metal that could be used to make other stuff instead. Huh, I wonder if she could make it take the shape of different tools with just the turn of a dial or something. That would be cool." He wondered. 'Though only people who can use their soul energy would be able to use the things, and not everyone is going to get their magic all at once, it will be slow. We don't even know if everyone will get magic eventually. Maybe not everyone can get magic? Maybe there'll be something in our DNA that lets us gain magic, and not everyone will end up having it?'

"Hey." The younger human said, placing her face right in front of his. "Earth to-"

"Huh? Oh, sorry." The teen apologized for getting lost in thought, not even realized he interrupted her.

"Anyway, what do you wanna watch?" The girl asked, sitting back beside him.

He noticed that Toriel had walked back to the kitchen/ dining area before looking at his friend. "You know me, I don't wanna _watch_ anything. I wanna play something." He answered.

The shorter one chuckled. "Alright, well as soon as this show is over than you can play." She said, and he nodded, perfectly fine with this. The show Frisk was watching went on for another twenty minutes before ending. The boy then walked over to the tv and turned on the console while grabbing the remotes. "Do you wanna play as well, or?..." He asked.

"No thanks. I'll let you play whatever today." Frisk responded.

"Okay." He set the other remote down and walked back over to the couch. "What the-" He raised his arms when Frisk suddenly crawled over and sat in his lap.

"No force one Earth will move me from this position!" The girl declared.

"Oh really? What about… the Force!?" He asked, shoving the girl off of him and back onto the couch, making her burst out laughing.

"That wasn't the force! You pushed me!" She pointed out.

"Exactly! Force Push! Physics beats all!" He countered.

Frisk sunk and acted depressed. "Ugh, I know. Physics really beats me up, especially gravity, I mean gravity is always getting me down…"

"Oh my god that was terrible." AJ announced between chuckles. "That wasn't good in any way, shape, or form."

"Oh come on! It wasn't _that_ bad." Frisk said.

"Yes, but you admitted it was bad, that's what matters." He said with a grin. Frisk jumped onto his lap again and he sighed with an amused smile. "Alright, cuddlebug, since you insist so much."

"What? I thought I was a cuddle _buddy_. Why am I a bug?" The girl asked, pouting.

"Cause you're short." He answered bluntly with a grin. The girl let out an offended noise before hitting his leg, making him laugh.

"I just haven't grown up yet!" The girl defended.

He impulsively hugged her. "Don't grow up, stay your little adorable self." He requested.

"But no one respects an ambassador that's a kid." The girl complained as she turned to the online game he was starting up.

"Well maybe you should have thought about that before you accepted being ambassador without even asking me first." He pointed out. "I didn't get to say a dang thing before you said yes!"

"I knew you were going to say no, but I had already made up my mind." She explained.

"Yeah, you made up your mind _without thinking first_." He pointed out. "You could have at least let me _try_ to stop you so I could feel like I had done something." He added with a bit of a chuckle at the end.

"We had both done a lot already, I just… didn't want to argue with you at the time." The girl explained softly.

He chuckled a bit. She had wanted to spare them having an argument when they really just wanted to relax after everything they had done. 'How thoughtful.' He thought about what she had told him, about the friend she had lost, about what she had faced. "I'm sorry, but I still think you're the angel that freed everyone." He commented.

"No… I'm really not." The girl said sadly. She wanted to argue more, and to say _his_ name, but couldn't since Toriel might hear. Instead she tried to stop thinking about that and just watch her fellow human play his game.

"Come on, do it!"

"I will, I need to get high ground first! Oh ho, they have no idea!"

" _It's high noon…"_

"Watch your back you idiots."

" _Draw!"_ *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

" _Triple Kill!"_

"YES!"

"Woohoo!"

"That better be play of the game. Oh, another kill. Yeah it's gonna be play of the game now. Haha!"

Toriel couldn't help but smile at the sound of her children laughing, and she couldn't help but check on them again to see them smiling and laughing. Sure, bad things happened outside, but when they were all home together, she forgot about the outside world and the problems it held. Here, there was only laughter, banter, and puns.

"Well, they did good, but we still won."

"Yep. Oh! Did you get it!?"

"Let's see… YES! Play of the game! Aaaaaannddd ONE-TWO-THREE! HAHA! Aaand then one more after missing three times."

"Now everyone knows how bad your aim really is." Frisk teased.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" AJ defended.

"Yeah, I guess you could be worse, but you still aren't great." She responded.

"Oh, do you think you could do better then?" He asked.

"W-Well I wasn't saying that, but-"

"No, go ahead! You play then!" He decided with a grin as he gave the girl the controller.

"A-Alright, fine. I-I can do this!"

…

"Aaaand you're dead." He deadpanned. "I'm so disappointed."

"What!? I've never played before! You gotta give me some time first!" Frisk complained.

"Nope. I'm judging you from the beginning." He said simply.

The girl scoffed. "You're so mean."

"Yes, that's why I have a green soul." He responded as he watched her run out and die again. "Solid attempt. Ten outta ten, would watch you fail again. I'm kidding, no I wouldn't." He deadpanned. They heard Goat Mom chuckling in the other room.

"Don't encourage him!" Frisk shouted, causing Toriel to burst out laughing, which made the teen laugh as well.

"Hehe… I'm sorry, Frisk. I'll stop, I don't like being mean to you anyway." He said, resting his head on top of hers to annoy the pouting girl. She made an annoyed noise. "Come on, Frisk, accept my apology!" He requested, shaking the girl violently.

"Okay! I accept! Just stop!" The girl cried out, laughing. He stopped shaking her and just laughed instead. The girl tried to ignore him, focusing intently on the screen and trying to learn how to play the game.

"You honestly should probably be doing training mode instead of fighting real players." AJ pointed out.

"There's a training mode!?" The girl asked angrily, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Did I not mention that?" The boy asked fearfully.

"No, you didn't." She answered.

"Whoops."

"Yeah, 'whoops'! I've been doing terrible and probably making people lose because I thought I could only fight other people!" Frisk said. "Why didn't you think of that sooner!?"

"…Forgot?" The teen answered hesitantly.

*Flips invisible desk* "Ugh! Of course you did!"

"Yep… forgetful ol me." The boy agreed completely.

* * *

Eventually, much to their disappointment, Toriel requested that they stop playing video games and get ready for bed. It was annoying for them both to get used to Toriel's insistence on 'early to bed, early to rise', but they would accept the bad, whatever it was, if it meant they got to have all the good they now had in their lives. They cleaned up and separately changed into their pajamas before finally settling into their shared room.

The beds were on the left and right sides of the room, with Frisk's on the right with a window above it and AJ's on the left, both against the back wall. There was a desk with a few drawers on the wall between the beds, with a few pictures Frisk had drawn in her free time scattered on the desk. She was just a kid, so she wasn't that good at drawing, but Toriel loved some of them so much that she put them on the refrigerator. The closet was in the left wall but there was an extra dresser on the right side. Neither of them had that many clothes so both those ended up being used for extra storage mostly.

"Goodnight, Mom!" The young human said, hugging the goat woman tightly.

"Goodnight, my child." Toriel responded softly.

It was now the teen's turn to hug the soft furred monster tightly. "Goodnight, Toriel."

"Goodnight, my child."

The two humans backed away towards their beds and smiled at her. ""Love you!"" They said.

"I love you both as well." Goat Mom said with a nod and a bright smile before stepping out and closing the door.

The dim blue nightlight near the closet was turned on by Frisk while AJ climbed into his long bed. Despite it being a dim light, it was still bright to look at directly in the otherwise dark room, so they had taken some cardboard and taped it to the wall around the night light, blocking their view from the light directly but allowing the light to go up and reflect off the ceiling. It bright enough to see, but not so bright that it made it difficult for them to sleep.

"Hey uh… Frisk?" He started hesitantly, and the girl turned away from her bed to give him her attention. "Is there anything from school you want to talk about? Maybe to vent or… whate-" The girl had walked over and suddenly sat on his bed next to him. "-ver…" He sighed before putting an arm around her. "You can tell me anything you want, sis." He said comfortingly.

The girl was simply looking at the ground. "The kids at school said a lot of means things about monsters, and they won't listen to anything I say." She spoke quietly.

"Yeah, they're idiots, they aren't going to listen." He commented.

"They steal my lunch all the time." Frisk said.

"Seriously?" He asked, shocked. "Do you get it back from them?"

She nodded. "Yeah. They try to fight me for it, but I dodge all of their attacks and get my food back."

"Well, that's good at least." He said after a moment.

"They call me names all the time…" The girl said sadly.

"Like?" He asked hesitantly, but with a tint of anger in his voice.

"Monster-lover."

"Well honestly that's a compliment. Only smart people like monsters."

She chuckled a bit before frowning. "Loser."

"They lose points on originality there."

Her body shook from a silent laugh before she frowned again. "Worthless…"

"Can you please stop going to that school?" He begged while hugging her tightly.

"Weak." She growled out.

He blinked with wide eyes before pulling back to look at her face. 'After everything she'd been through?' "And you seriously didn't knock anyone senseless?"

"No, of course not." She answered immediately.

He shook his head and sighed before covering his hands in green flame and holding her tight again. The flame could only come from his hands, but any touch from the flame felt even more warm and comforting than the hug. "Frisk, I'm sorry but I cannot let you go there anymore! It's not good for your mental health to go somewhere where people are just gonna call you every bad thing they can think of. As strong as you are, I can tell this is getting to you." He made it clear in his voice that he wasn't going to accept her saying no. "Come on, you can just watch me and Undyne fight tomorrow instead."

The girl chuckled a bit, wiping away the tears that had come up in her anger. "Yeah… that sounds better than school. Sure."

"Good, now…" He trailed off as he got off the bed and on one knee in front of Frisk. "You probably don't need to hear this, but I will say it anyway. All the names those kids called you are not true, okay? They are idiots, and you are better than them, that's why they have to be mean to people like us, to feel better about themselves. But you aren't going to let them get to you, are you?" She smiled a bit. "No, because you're determined!" He said, making her smile grow. "Nothing those kids said is true, you got that? You are not weak, you are not a loser, _you are not worthless_. You are amazing and a better person than all of those dumb kids combined. I have no doubt of that. Just remember that and never let what they say effect how you feel about yourself."

He saw those lights appear in her eyes before she jumped off the bed and hugged him tightly again. His words of encouragement were just what she needed to hear and she was incredibly thankful.

"You are the best brother ever! Thank you!" She said cheerfully before letting go of him and going back to her bed.

"Oh come on... There are definitely better brothers than me." He said shyly.

She hopped into her bed before turning to him. "I refuse to believe such a thing!" She announced dramatically before lying down and pulling her blankets up.

He let out an amused snort. "Well, goodnight then." He said before crawling into his own bed.

"Goodnight!"

* * *

 **IMPORTANT REQUEST BELOW**

 **I mentioned how long it should take for humans to gain magic, but I don't want to just skip to that point, I want things to happen between now and then, I actually want this to be slice of life for awhile before going AU crazy. So, I would like you guys to give me ideas for events that could happen between now and then. Anything you can think of, little events, (a conversation about something or in a certain area) entire chapter concepts (picnic, road trip) whatever you can think of. Just any idea or concept that I could use. Even if I don't use an idea, I may be inspired by it to do something else. I can't come up with all the ideas myself and am honestly having a hard time coming up with any right now, so I have to ask this of you all. It will help us progress faster. Or… you know… at all.**

 **Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this, and I hope you all have a great next week! See you whenever I post something next! And who knows when that'll be!?**


	5. No One Is Perfect

**For those who were excited about this sequel thing, I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back to it. This chapter was… complicated. First I didn't want to write what my plan was for the chapter, than that plan changed, and then I had to deal with the slow and delicate process of making sure everything turned out right because of what goes on in this chapter. (I cared about the dialogue for once) It's… it's been a thing but we're finally here.**

 **Also thank you for the ideas so far! I like them and will see what I can do about using them in later chapters. If anyone has any more ideas, don't be shy like me, go ahead and tell me em!**

 **I'll try not to take as long for the next chapter.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.5

* * *

Toriel walked across the short hall to wake up her children the next day. Before she even got to the door though, she noticed there was a note on the floor.

"Frisk isn't going to school today. Mind letting us sleep for another hour or two?"

The monster was greatly confused by this. Why wasn't Frisk going to school? But as far as she knew, neither of her children were ones to lie like this just to get out of school. She knew his opinion on her going to the school, but she doubted he would do something like this without reason. He didn't even explain why she isn't going in the note though... The goat woman nearly walked in anyway to ask why her younger child wasn't going to school today, but she decided she would let them sleep a little longer. She would ask why they're doing this when they got up.

Frisk was very grateful for the extra sleep when she finally woke up. She noticed though that her friend was still asleep, and she couldn't have that, he needed to wake up so they could do stuff together. At the moment she specifically wanted to get back into their Minecraft world, and it was on his profile so she couldn't play it unless he played with her, not that she would play without him anyway. "AJ, it's time to wake up!" She said as she stood up from her bed. She smirked when she noticed him stir, and her smirk grew when he clearly tried to ignore her and go back to sleep. She walked up next to his bed. "Don't you go back to sleep on me." He didn't move. "Fine." She crawled on top of him and splayed out across his bed. "I'm just going to lie on you until you get up." She decided.

That sentence was met with an immediate sigh from him. "Frisk… leave me alone…" He groaned.

"Nope! Mom already gave us an extra hour." She would know, she had checked the clock. It was 9 already. "Any longer and she'll come in here herself and make you get up."

He knew he wouldn't be able to do anything about Toriel getting him moving, so he decided to just give in and start waking up now. "Alright… fine." Said the groggy teen before he smiled and wrapped the child in a hug. "Goodmorning, sis." He had to force himself to say it, but he hoped someday it would just be natural to call her that.

"Goodmorning!" Frisk responded and hugged him back before jumping out of the bed. "So, are we gonna tell Goat Mom why I'm not going to school or are we gonna… say something else?" She asked.

Toriel had seen Frisk saddened by something on their third day in their new home. She had tried to help her child, but she couldn't help the girl, not with the problems she had. The humans decided to just be upfront with her and say that there are some things that Frisk is only comfortable with talking to her fellow human about. The monster woman was saddened when she was told this, but she respected Frisk's decision and trusted that the two of them could talk and help each other. Of course she wondered what secrets her child kept from her, but she promised never to pry.

"We should probably just tell her the truth." AJ answered. "If she knows that you're getting bullied, she won't want you going either, I bet." He added. He noticed she seemed disappointed by that. "Why in the world did you insist on going to that stupid school?" He asked again, annoyed that she had never answered the question before.

The girl looked down at the ground sadly. "I just… wanted to see if I still had any friends there." She answered hesitantly.

"And did you?" He asked.

Another hesitant answer. "…No."

"Hmph. Not surprised." He said before standing up and stretching. "Look, you're better off waiting for the monster school to be built. Avoiding that human school is better for your mental and emotional health." He pointed out. Judging by her expression, she seemed to be in denial of that fact. "Frisk, come on, you aren't immune to bullies no matter how much you want to be. After everything you've been through, it's okay to feel hurt by them. In fact I'd say it's natural."

"But after everything I've been through, I should be strong enough to _not_ be hurt by them!" She argued.

"I'm afraid that's not how it works." He pointed out sadly. "A person can only take so much abuse, the mind can only handle so much. It's okay, Frisk, it really is. As long as me and all the monsters are here though, you'll be fine. You'll always have people to talk to, to cheer you up and help you forget whatever mean things people have said to you. That's worked out for us so far, hasn't it? Venting our frustrations about the day before going to sleep?"

The girl smiled a little. "Yeah… That's how you knew they were getting to me, right?"

"Yeah." He admitted. "You'd only been there a few days, but you were already making it clear with each day that they were bothering you, a lot." Before he could say anything else, the child's stomach growled, and he let out an amused snort.

"I hope Toriel made pancakes again today." The girl hoped before heading to the door.

"Me too." He said as he turned off their nightlight before following.

The two humans went down the stairs and quickly noticed the smell flowing through the air. ""Yes!"" They both cheer-whispered before moving to the kitchen a bit more quickly. They turned left before the front door and saw Toriel setting out two plates on the table at their preferred seats. One plate had a stack of three thick pancakes, each with butter, cinnamon, and sugar on them. The other had the same but the pancakes were a bit thinner and they had syrup on them as well. Frisk was quick to take a seat before the syrupy pancakes while AJ took his seat before the thicker pancakes.

"Not so fast you two." Toriel spoke up. The two humans turned to her and saw her raising an eyebrow at them with her arms crossed. "Before either of you eat, you are going to explain why Frisk is not going to school today." She said sternly.

"But they're going to get cold!" The child complained.

"Then explain quickly." Toriel countered. "I went to all the trouble of explaining your situation and getting you back into that school, so you cannot just skip out on it without reason. So, what is your reason?" She asked strongly. She knew that with them, there had to be a reason, she just wanted to know what it was already.

"Frisk was getting bullied so I decided she isn't going to school today and that we are instead going to stay here and have a fun time till it's time for me and Undyne to have our fight, and then she will watch that fight." AJ explained, quick and to the point.

Toriel couldn't help but feel that there was a slight underlying tone in his voice that was suggesting she shouldn't try and argue against him. She could sort of understand that though if what he said was true. Frisk was being bullied, and it was apparently getting to her if he decided she is staying home from school. He was simply doing this to help cheer Frisk up, and being as protective as he was, he wasn't going to let anyone mess with something that might make Frisk happy.

Toriel gave as disarming of a smile as she could to the boy. "You do not have to worry about me, AJ. I may believe in the importance of school, but I will not force her to go to school if it makes her unhappy."

He smiled back at her. "Thank you, Toriel. And… I-I know you wouldn't do anything like that. I'm sorry that came out that way." He apologized, sorry for being rude to her.

"I forgive you." The monster said honestly. "I know you are more protective of her than anyone else, and I hold nothing against you for acting out on that." She said before turning around to finish making pancakes for herself. The humans were able to enjoy their food in comfortable silence for awhile, until Toriel sat down with her own plate of fluffy goodness. She raised her fork to take a bite before stopping in realization. "Wait… what fight with Undyne?" She asked.

"Oh, right, that." AJ said after a pause. "I saw Undyne looking really bored yesterday and she wanted to fight me to fix that but I said no and she got really depressed so I decided I'd spar with her real quick and promised a full fight the next day and now it's that day." He explained before finally breathing.

Toriel smiled proudly. "It is very kind of you to offer to do that for her."

"Well, that is what my soul trait is." The boy said with a shrug and a grin.

"Unfortunately I must forbid this fight."

"Wait, what?"

"What!?" Frisk whined.

"Undyne is a powerful and dangerous monster. I can clearly see why she was Captain of the Royal Guard. That is why I will not allow one of my children to go and fight with her." Goat Mom said calmly but sternly.

"It's just a little fight! It's not like I would let her use her magic or anything!" AJ pointed out.

"And I wanted to see them fight too!" The younger human added.

"I am sorry, but I cannot stand the thought of either of my children getting hurt." Toriel said sadly.

At that moment, the teen felt no pity for her. "This isn't about _you_ , this is about Undyne!" He argued.

The monster gave up on the pity card and instead went with the serious-mom-stare. "AJ, your relationship with Frisk is not one-way. You do not want to see her hurt in the slightest. Do you really think she wants to see you hurt either?"

"Mom, it's okay, really. I want to see their fight." Frisk spoke up with a pleading smile.

"My child, do you really want to see him hurt by Undyne? Would you be willing to stand there and watch them fight? It would not be a pleasant sight." Toriel asked the girl in a concerned manner.

Now if he hadn't read into that, this argument would have gone on normally. It didn't go normally though.

"HEY! Don't manipulate her!" AJ shouted angrily, standing up in his seat and pointing at her.

Goat Mom flinched back in surprise. "I… I did not mean to seem manipulative… I just want to make sure Frisk understands what is about to happen."

"You just want her to do what you want!" He countered. "Let her think for herself and make her own decisions!"

"I am letting her think for herself." Toriel responded, her annoyance starting to show.

"Now you're not, you're being selfish!" He said angrily.

"Selfish!?" The monster responded, insulted.

"Yes! You're just being completely selfish!" Realization flashed in his eyes. "In fact, you're always being selfish! You've always _been_ selfish! God DAMN IT!" He shouted as he turned around and walked away to the living room. Frisk was quick to follow her friend with a worried look and Toriel soon followed.

"A-AJ, you don't have to-" Frisk started.

"I really thought you would be better than my mom was! But NO! It's always about what _you_ want and not giving a crap about others whenever you feel like it!" AJ turned and shouted back at Toriel before realizing something. "Hey! You know what, Frisk? I never visited Asgore yesterday! Why don't we go do that now!?" He said before opening the door and walking out of the house.

Frisk stopped at the door and turned back to a wounded looking goat woman. "I'm sorry… I'm sure he didn't mean it. He just gets like this when he's angry and I'm sure he'll-"

"Are you coming or what!?"

"I'msurehe'llapologizewhenwegetback!" Frisk said quickly before closing the door.

* * *

She quickly caught up with her friend, who had already started walking down the sidewalk with the intent of visiting Asgore. She walked beside him and saw his expression and his body language, and as much as she wanted to talk to him, she was afraid to because she knew he needed a little bit of time to relax first.

So she shyly shuffled beside him silently for a second.

"I'm guessing you don't want to watch the fight anymore." The teen said without looking at her. He checked both ways before walking along the crosswalk.

She was hesitant since she knew he wouldn't like her answer. "N-Not really."

He let out a mix of a sigh and a grumble. "Alright then, fine. But only because of you, not because of her."

They continued their walk through suburbia, ignoring the looks that certain humans would give them. The worried child wasn't sure what to say to him. She wanted to say that he shouldn't have been so mean, but she knew that he wouldn't care about something like that, at least not right now. She ended up not saying anything until they arrived. They stood at the door to the house and knocked.

"Oh, is someone there? Just a moment!" Eventually the door was opened and the tall king stood at the door.

Thankfully they had found a house specifically designed for tall people for him to live in. He manages to walk around in other houses, but just barely. He's able to squeeze himself through where he needs to as long as he isn't wearing any armor. He has made it clear however that he prefers to be in New Home where he can walk around easily, and does end up visiting there often.

Asgore's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the humans. "O-Oh! Hello there, humans! What brings you two here?" He asked in his usual polite way.

"Can we come in?" AJ asked.

"Sure!" The king answered cheerfully before realizing the look on the human's face and growing worried. "Is… something wrong?"

The older human walked past him, so Frisk answered. "Toriel and AJ… had an argument."

"An argument? Oh dear…" Asgore said worryingly before closing the door behind the humans.

"Toriel tried to manipulate her." The teen answered as he walked straight to the living room and plopped down on the couch. His frown showed no signs of going away.

"She was just trying to take care of us, and AJ got mad at something she said and yelled at her before leaving." Frisk explained.

"That… does not sound like an argument with Toriel." Asgore commented, slightly confused. They walked into the large living room where the other human was. "Could you two please explain what happened?" He requested.

Frisk looked to her fellow human worriedly, but he was splayed out across the couch and looking away from her and the monster king. "AJ saw that Undyne was bored, so he wanted to cheer her up by fighting with her today. Then Toriel said we couldn't because she didn't want us to get hurt, and she wanted me to agree with her that he shouldn't fight, because he'll get hurt. AJ didn't like that and yelled at her, said some mean things, and then left to see you."

"I realized I didn't visit the boss monster that's actually selfless and knew I needed to fix that." The boy added.

Asgore realized what was going on. "Ah, I see. You wanted a reason to get away from Toriel."

"That's the other reason." The older human responded.

"And what mean things did you say to Tori?" The king asked, with an underlying tone that the humans heard clearly.

"Knowing you, you don't actually want to hear that." AJ responded, practically waving him off.

The king loomed over him more. "I may not want to hear it, but that is not the point. No matter how that woman feels about my past actions, I still love her very much, and do not like the thought of you hurting her in any way."

In response, the boy sat up straight on the couch and glared up at the king. "And how _can_ you!? She's completely selfish! Everything's about what _she_ wants!" He shouted angrily. "Like I get that you loved her and had a kid with her, but you did an incredibly selfless thing for the sake of your people and she _abandoned_ you! You both were grieving over your children, but you still got up and did something, and she just ran away! Not only that, but she's… SCORNED YOU ever since! If I were you I'd hate her!"

Asgore surprised them both by smiling in response. "I can never stop loving her, that's just not possible." He looked to the side in thought for a moment before looking down at the older human again. "I think I understand what you mean about her manipulating Frisk, but I believe she was just desperate, desperate to protect you two at any costs, even being less than straight forward with you two." He could see that that didn't satisfy the human. "She loves you, you know. In the few times I've seen her I've seen that she loves you both like her own children. Having lost our children before, she is probably paranoid and fearful that she will lose you two as well, even with someone trustworthy like Undyne, who would never cause that much harm to you humans."

"See AJ? She just cares about us." Frisk spoke up.

"Yes, I know that she cares, that's not the point." He countered.

"But she _realllllly_ cares about us! She cares so much that she'll do things that might not be all that good to protect us! You'd do stuff like that for me, wouldn't you?" The girl asked.

"I don't know." He answered with an angry shrug. "I'd do whatever I had to do to protect you, so… I guess."

Frisk smiled before throwing her arms up in a silent cheer.

"Toriel has been through much, AJ, and I understand if you cannot do it right now, but you really should be nicer to her when you can." Asgore requested.

"Are you asking me to pity her?" AJ asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, don't pity her, just love her." The king responded. "Love her like I know you love her. You are angry about something you feel in wrong, but soon you will cool down and you can go back home and continue normal life. I won't say you have to apologize, but you should, if you feel it is right."

If the boy knew the king was right, he didn't show it. He simply rolled his eyes dismissively and laid out across the couch again. The monster king decided to leave him alone and went elsewhere. A few minutes later the taller human quietly got up and walked into the kitchen, where he found the king staring out a window above the sink.

"Asgore?" The human asked.

The king turned to him with a curious expression.

"Do you have _anything_ to say about what Toriel did back then?" AJ asked seriously.

Asgore smiled. "On that day, Tori and I both made hasty decisions fueled by our emotions." He answered. He started to turn away when he said one last thing. "It's something we all do at some point, wouldn't you agree?" He asked without expecting an answer.

The king spent a few seconds staring out the window without hearing a sound from the human. "See you later, Asgore." The boy said before walking away.

Asgore heard the other human run up to him to hug him. "Bye Asgore!"

"Goodbye, Frisk. I hope you and Tori and AJ have a better day tomorrow." Asgore said as he picked up the child to hug her back.

* * *

They opened and closed the door to their home. Frisk went upstairs to their room and left the older human and monster alone in the dining room. Toriel looked worried and AJ wasn't showing too much with his face. They both were silent for awhile as Toriel didn't know what to say. Eventually she opened her mouth to finally speak.

"I know I'm a hypocrite." He cut her off simply. "In more ways than one, in fact. I say hypocritical things because I want people to be better than I am, to do the things I can't do. Like… be better than the people who anger you, or don't be selfish, or when I say 'don't stay up late' to Frisk but then do it myself."

Having rarely seen him angry and never having it directed at her, Toriel was surprised that this was what he was doing right now.

"I _know_ I'm a hypocrite. I _know_ I selfishly protect Frisk the way you were protecting us. What I was trying to say amidst my angry shouting was 'be better than me, don't be selfish'. So… I won't get angry at you about it anymore. Doesn't mean I'm okay with it, but I need to remember the one thing I've been having beat into my head this year, no one's perfect. Not me, not you, not Frisk, not anyone. _Everyone_ has their flaws. Can't go hating someone over it… I _am_ sorry for yelling at you, I just wish people would think about others more often, instead of only what _they_ want."

"I understand." She nodded in agreement and understanding.

"I mean, I may be the same with Frisk, but I still think about others and what they want if I know I should." He realized. 'No, you idiot! Just let it go!'

"I just worried she was not telling the truth, that she was just allowing the fight in order to help Undyne, and maybe make you happy as well, when she knew she wouldn't like it."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You thought she didn't want to watch the fight but didn't tell me? Does… does Frisk do selflessly nice things like that? I mean she does a lot of nice stuff, but I've never seen her do something that selfless."

Toriel giggled. "You must not have been thinking about what she has done. She does lots of things, big and small, just to make people happy. People, monsters, you, everyone really. She does it because of you, you know."

"Me? What do you mean?" He asked, confused.

"She told me yesterday, about how you said some things while in Home, and they made her rethink how best to be nice to people. She ended up deciding that focusing all your effort on caring about others allows you to be the best kind of nice person." She explained. "I told her that yes, you should be caring to others, but you should never forget to take care of yourself, and that it is important, but she would not have it. She said, and I quote, 'I don't need to take much care of myself though, I have AJ! He's always watching me and making sure I'm safe from danger! He makes sure I'm always happy! As long as he's taking care of me, I'm free to help everyone else!' I may not agree with her, but I guess she does have a point." She said with a smile.

"She never explained that to me!" He commented. "I mean yeah she said she could take care of me since I'm taking care of her, but I didn't realize she used that logic in another way! I… I apparently need to talk to Frisk." He realized and turned to walk away. He stopped himself and turned back to walk towards Toriel. He stopped and held his arms out, smiling apologetically at her. She smiled before accepting his hug. "I'm sorry. I hope you aren't too mad at me."

"It is alright, my child. I understand that my decisions in the past may not have been… the best ones." She admitted hesitantly. "You are right, no one is perfect. We all make bad decisions at some points in our lives… some more than others, and some more severely than others. I will try to make better decisions moving forward, and I am sorry for being manipulative in the way I was." She said with a nod. "My decision on the fight still stands though." She added.

"That's okay, I understand." He said softly and nodded. "Honestly, the only thing that set me off was the manipulating, which is just what happens in an argument, you try to make the other person see your side of things. I just… thought worse of it at the time and got angry and it brought up all my other problems with things and… yeah. I know that you just care about us. Undyne will just have to find someone else to fight with I guess."

"B-Before you go…" Toriel started hesitantly. "Have you changed your mind on how you feel about me compared to your real mother?"

His response was almost immediate. "Oh don't worry about that, Toriel. That was just me overreacting there. You don't… you don't do the things she does." He then realized he should have thought of his response a little more than not-at-all. "...You aren't that kind of selfish, you don't stop caring whenever you feel like it. I know my mom did care, it's just that she had the tendency to stop, suddenly. I…" He suddenly sunk down in depressed realization. "Oh… I get it… I never said that to her."

"Excuse me?" Toriel asked, confused.

"I was ranting at you what I wanted to say to her. I just saw you being 'selfish' and suddenly saw a chance to shout what I always thought about her right to her face, even though you aren't her. I… I am _so_ sorry." He apologized strongly.

"You are forgiven, my child. If you ever have a problem with something, do not be afraid to speak your mind. Though I would prefer if you did so in a kinder tone next time." Goat Mom said.

The fact that he felt bad was clear to see. "I know, I know, I will… I don't like yelling at you anyway." He joked weakly.

Toriel chuckled. "Good. Now that we're not upset, I believe you wanted to talk to Frisk."

"Right." He said with a nod before turning around to head down the hall. "Oh, Toriel." He stopped and turned back to her to bow to her. "Thank you very much for taking us in and giving us a home. We both really appreciate it and can't thank you enough."

"As if I would not take you both in! I enjoyed your company when I found you both in the Underground and had missed living with and taking care of others!" Toriel responded happily.

He genuinely smiled at that. "I may have only known you for like two weeks, but I'm glad you're happy."

"Have you not only known Frisk for two weeks as well?" The monster asked.

"Yes, but we went on a great big journey together." He pointed out as he started walking towards the stairs again.

"Ah, that is true." Toriel said with a nod as she watched him go up the stairs. She smiled as he went out of her sight towards his and Frisk's room. She was worried that this fight would be a big deal between them, but it had turned out to just be a minor thing that they've already gotten over. No ill will between them.

* * *

Frisk was sitting at the desk in their room when the door flung open and the older human dove into the room and landed in a roll that ended with him on his back. "Hey Frisk." He greeted casually as the girl spun her chair around to see her friend on the floor looking up at her.

She giggled at the rare sight of his spontaneous side. "Hi!" AJ rolled over before standing up and sitting on his bed. "So… are you still mad at Toriel?" She asked worryingly.

"No, Frisk. Everything's fine. It was just an outburst and nothing more." He responded.

"That didn't sound like just an outburst back then." Frisk pointed out.

"More importantly though, there's something you never really explained to me." He started.

"What?" She asked curiously.

"Back in Snowdin we made our 'I take care of you, you take care of me' promise thing. I believe you said it was because you decided to just think about others like I was doing." She nodded. "Okay. You never mentioned you extended that to other people!" He pointed out.

"I didn't?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"No! I thought you were just being that way for me, but Toriel told me that you said that you've been doing that for everyone because you saw me be selfless!" AJ said.

"Well yeah. You were focusing so much on taking care of me back in the ruins, and then you said you didn't care about yourself, so I thought about it and noticed that you can take better care of others if you don't worry about taking care of yourself, so I did that with you! Then when we got back on the surface, I did it with everyone else!" Frisk explained.

"You… do know that I don't do that just to be nice, right? I don't take care of myself because I don't care about myself." He clarified.

"Yeah, I know, but you don't need to worry about that, because I can take care of you instead!" The girl exclaimed happily.

"Heh, yep, you've certainly done that."

"Yeah! Hugs always fix bad days!" She exclaimed before jumping off her chair and hugging him. He chuckled and hugged her back.

"So did you really not want to watch the fight, but agree to it anyway to make Undyne happy?" He asked.

"I thought it might make you happy too." She admitted.

"Huh... You really are doing completely selfless things." He realized.

"That's what I'm saying! You take care of me so I'm free to do whatever I need to do for people, including you!"

He couldn't help but notice that she had been doing this kind of stuff and he had never noticed it before. Without really meaning to, he put himself in her position in his mind, tried to think things out in her position. He suddenly thought of something that he totally would have done if he was in that position. "Frisk… do you… avoid doing really selfless things near me to keep me from thinking you're selfless and therefore keep me from assuming you would do selfless things for me?"

The girl was so surprised she couldn't stop her eyes from widening in shock. "I-I… um…"

His own eyes widened in shock. "Jesus, kid, I knew you were smart but _damn_. That's quite a thought process for a kid. I apparently need to be careful around you since you're so sneaky." He said with a bit of a smirk.

The girl blushed a bit from his complements and looked away shyly. "I-It was like the only smart thought I've had. I'm nowhere near as smart as you."

"Oh come on, I'm not that- You know what? I'm gonna stop before we just start going back and forth. 'I'm not that smart' 'yes you are' 'no you are' 'no you are'!" He mimicked, and they both laughed at that.

"You know, I really can't have you doing stuff like this." He pointed out while still smiling.

"What do you mean?" She asked before deciding to do a random cartwheel in the middle of their room.

"Do I really need to say it!? Frisk, you're literally the reason I live. I want you to be happy, and you aren't happy when you're doing things you don't like just to make me happy." He explained.

"B-But I just do it to make you happy." She said sadly. "You and everyone else… Can't I do that at least?"

He sighed. "How about this? Let's be honest when we don't like something. Let's be honest if we're doing something just to make the other one happy."

The child hopped back in front of him. "No! I know you! If you knew I didn't like something, you wouldn't do it, even if it would make you happy! That's why I didn't tell you this in the first place!"

"We'll reach a compromise somehow, I'm sure of it. Because, let's just be honest here." He lightly nudged her with his elbow and winked. "We're _both_ pretty smart."

She chuckled. "Alright, fine. BUT! You have to promise that you will still do something that makes you happy even if I don't like it!" She requested.

"Well… if me being happy makes you happy… then maybe I will!" He answered.

"Good!" Frisk said with a strong nod.

"Alright, well, now that that's out of the way and everyone's happy and satisfied… We still have more than half the day to do whatever we want." He pointed out.

She gasped excitedly. "Oh yeah! What should we do!?"

"Play video games for an unhealthy amount of time?"

"MINECRAFT!" She cheered in response before running out their room to head downstairs. He laughed for a moment before leaving the room as well.

* * *

 **So… that wasn't supposed to happen.**

 **Seriously this chapter was going to be another fight and then a little something after if I could think of anything. Then I realized I couldn't write the damn fight and wanted a way out of that so I could start writing again. Thought up Toriel arguing with them and went with it, then realized Toriel sounded really manipulative, and the whole argument spiraled out of control in my head and I realized I was probably going to write it, and then I did.**

 **Feel like stuff like that should be saved till later in the story buuuuut it's the only idea I got for the chapter and I feel like rolling with these random ideas is the best thing for me to do. I mean it's worked out so far, right?**

 **I'm gonna start writing more chapters so I can do some happy scenes, I much prefer writing happy scenes…**

 **I hope that your time between now and my next post is pleasant!**

.

.

.

 **And because I KNOW someone is going to say it, no, I'm not venting my parent problems, I'm just actually making a kind of decent character background for once! The OC's parents in this are much worse than my real parents. I vent lots of things with my fanfiction, but I do not bring real life people into my stories to vent about them. I vent issues with subjects or maybe types of people, but not real people.**

 **Oh and just a tip for life, don't get selfish actions confused with selfish people. Everyone (hopefully) thinks for themselves at some point in their lives, that does not make them selfish. If they do something to benefit themselves when they could have done something for someone else, that is a selfish action, but that does not make them evil and selfish. If someone constantly does selfish actions, then maybe you can call them a selfish person.**

 **Selfish action, selfish person, and thinking for yourself when it doesn't affect anyone else.**

 **Know the difference.**

 **And I'll leave you with something I was very tempted to put in but ended up leaving out because I knew some people would rather have immersion/tone than humor. Can't make me get rid of the shuffling silently thing tho.**

He let out a mix of a sigh and a grumble. A grigh if you will. Or is it a sumble?


	6. Late At Night

**The very first bit of that last chapter had actually been done long before ProtectorTale had been finished, but from now on we're doing totally fresh chapters! Not that that means much or anything!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.6

* * *

AJ woke up feeling surprisingly at peace.

He wasn't being annoyed by the lovable Frisk, and Toriel wasn't waking them both up because they slept in. It was awfully bright though.

That was when he realized he was staring up at the sky.

He blinked twice at that realization and sat up slowly. His eyes widened in awe at the sight he was welcomed with the moment he did so. All he could see was rolling hills covered in tall grass, extending all the way to the horizon and probably beyond. He was sitting on the side of one of the many hills, and the entire atmosphere of the place was quite relaxing and calming.

He tried to find other discernable features in the area, but there was nothing but hills and grass. He stared up and noticed that the entire sky was a beautiful blue, but there was no sun in sight. His attention was brought to his hand as he felt the grass around him brushing against it. "Whoa!" He exclaimed and pulled his hand up from the grass when he noticed the blades of grass glowing light green. He noticed that all the grass he was touching was glowing the same lighter green, and he looked confused by this. He tapped the tip of a nearby blade of grass and watched magical green energy the same color as his soul travel down the grass.

He hummed in thought before standing up, making a mental note of the fact that the grass reacted to his touch even through his shoes and the rest of his clothes. "Huh? My soul?" He commented when he noticed the green heart floating over his chest. He never willingly let it out, so it surprised him a bit. He turned around and began walking up to the top of the small hill, and the grass glowed green when he stepped on it before returning to normal when he stepped off it. He reached the top and confirmed that the rolling hills truly went out to the horizon no matter where he looked. He closed his eyes and smiled as a gust of cool wind blew by and went through his hair.

He frowned when he noticed the feeling was gone. All the good feelings he had were gone and he opened his eyes to see why. Everything was much darker than before, because he was lying in his bed now. He looked left and could tell by the lack of light coming through the window above Frisk's bed that it was still the middle of the night. He checked his phone and confirmed that.

'Great, I'm wide awake for some reason.' He thought grumpily. 'Huh. For a dream, I was thinking surprisingly clearly.' He noted. He laid there for another ten minutes to confirm that he was just wasting his time trying to sleep, so he decided to get up. He made sure to slide out of his bed as quietly as possible, and he made his way towards the door as carefully as he could.

And yet somehow, Frisk still stirred. "Hey… I feel you… going…" She managed to say before opening her eyes slightly.

AJ froze in place before turning his head towards her. " _You're dreaming this_ …" He whispered slowly.

"No I'm not…" The girl said tiredly.

He knew he needed to act quickly to make sure she didn't wake up completely. He wanted her to get a good night's sleep after all. So he quickly stepped over to her bed and placed his hand on her head as she started to lift it up from her pillow. "Shh… Just go back to sleep, Frisk." He requested softly.

"B-But…" She struggled to keep her eyes open as he stroked her hair to try and help her sleep. Her head started to sink back down when she forced it back up and opened her eyes a bit more. "…N-No… where are you going?" She asked him.

"I'm just going to the backyard for a bit." He answered quietly.

"But… it's dark out. Someone could hurt you…" She pointed out tiredly as she sat up in her bed.

"Come on, Frisk, I'll be fine. Please just go back to sleep." He pleaded.

"No." She responded clearly and with open eyes. "I'm going with you so I'll know nothing happened to you while you were gone."

He sighed since he realized she was totally awake now. "Alright, fine." He conceded before smiling and holding out his hand. "Let's go then."

The duo put on their slippers and left their room quietly. They stayed as silent as they could as they went down the stairs, turned left into the laundry room, and out to their back porch. The older one walked up to the two stair steps leading to the grass in their backyard while the younger one let go of his hand and went to turn on the porch light.

"Actually, could you turn that off, please?" He requested.

She looked confused for a moment. "Um, ok." She turned off the light and walked back next to him. "But now it's too dark." She noticed.

AJ leaned forward so he could see past the roof of the porch and look up at the night sky. "Oh yeah, there not even a half moon out." After a few seconds he turned to her with a smile. "How about this?" He held his hand out in front of him as it glowed green and became clearly visible in the night. Four large flat rectangles made of his magic appeared seven feet off the ground above their backyard, and they were just bright enough to light up most the grass with a dim green glow.

"Whoa… cool!" Frisk whispered in awe before stepping down and walking straight through their backyard. The grass throughout, much of Toriel's gardens in the corners, and the two humans all had faint green light shining on them. "Can you do anything about how cold it is?" She asked as she clutched herself tightly and turned to face him.

"Nope!" He answered simply before holding his hands up. "I can only set my hands on fire. If you can even call it fire."

The child walked over to him and hugged him tightly for warmth. "It's really cold though! Can we go back inside now?"

"We've been here for like ten seconds. Don't you wanna look up at the stars?" He asked.

"We can't see the stars this close to the city." She pointed out.

"Oh yeah, right…"

"Did you really come out here because you forgot we can't see stars here?" Frisk asked with an amused smile.

"Of course not. I came here…" He started to walk away and she gripped his hand before following him. "Because sometimes when you can't sleep, you just gotta walk around for a bit and eventually your brain will calm down and you'll be able to go to bed." He explained as they walked aimlessly through their backyard.

Frisk let go of his hand and practically sprinted back to the porch. "I'm just gonna stay and watch from here, okay?" She said as she held herself tightly again.

He stopped walking for a moment and chuckled before responding. "Well if you just ran like that the whole time you wouldn't be so cold." He then continued walking around for a few more minutes until he was satisfied. He walked back to the porch where the girl had vigilantly, if impatiently, watched over him from the slightly-warmer-than-the-outside porch. He stopped to admire the darkness one last time, making sure his magic platforms were gone so he could truly appreciate it the dark and the quiet.

It was one of the things he liked about this particular house, and part of the reason he chose it. It wasn't in the middle of the suburbs, it was at the end of it. There was no street or house on the other side of their backyard. At the moment there was just darkness, but when it was day they could see the entire open field and slow incline that led to the mountain range that Mt. Ebott was a part of.

"Yep, I feel better. And I'm actually tired now." He realized.

"Why are you awake anyway?" Frisk asked as they walked back into the house. "Did you have a nightmare?" She asked, concerned.

"Nope, no nightmare." He answered.

The girl suddenly stepped in front of him and looked him in the eye. "You promise?"

Knowing that he wasn't lying, he was able to smile and give a solid nod as he answered. "I promise! If I had been shaken up by a nightmare, you probably would have known already."

She stared at him for a few more seconds before deciding he wasn't lying and smiling again. "Alright, good!"

They had just made it up the stairs when they heard a voice through the door to their left. "Children?... Is that you?..."

AJ quickly but quietly reached the door to Toriel's room. " _You're dreaming this_ …" He whispered.

The moment after he said that the door flew open and Toriel was standing right in front of him with her eyebrows raised.

"O for two then? Alright…" The teen deadpanned.

"What are you both doing up this late at night?" Goat Mom asked.

"We couldn't sleep so we walked around for a bit. We're going to bed now though so don't worry." AJ said before turning to walk away while Frisk waved at Toriel from behind him.

"You do not look very tired though." The monster woman noted. "You do not sound very tired either."

"That's my secret, Toriel…" He said before looking over his shoulder with a grin. "I'm always tired."

Goat Mom looked confused.

The humans closed the door to their room and walked back to their own beds.

"Goodnight, again." AJ said.

"Goodnight, again." Frisk responded with a chuckle.

* * *

 **Ok so after writing this I've realized it doesn't really belong with anything else I want to write so I think I'd rather keep it a separate chapter.**

 **Actually that brings up a point. There are some ideas I have that I can't really make into long chapters without mixing them with other random ideas, but I still want to write them. I don't like posting short chapters, but I think I should open up to that idea a bit more in order to write everything I want to. Basically, expect short chapters like this to actually be a thing. I think this might be a good thing though, cause if I don't force myself to have at least 5000 words, I'll be able to post more! Theoretically anyway.**

 **Well, regardless how you feel about that sudden decision, I hope you have a good day.**

 **Oh, and if you're enjoying all this, don't forget to follow or fav. I've been forgetting to say that.**

 **(Well! I feel better after writing that chapter)**

 **(Also was very tempted to put 'captain' instead of Toriel to complete that reference and make it even more blatant than it already is XD)**


	7. A School Day

***Has nothing to say at the start for once***

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.7

* * *

"AJ! AJ, wake up!" An excited child said, bouncing in place next to her friend's bed.

The teen opened his eyes and grumbled groggily before weakly turning his head to look at Frisk. "Yes, hi, Frisk. You sure look… awake." He said tiredly.

"Yeah, I feel great! And I just had this really cool dream!" Frisk exclaimed.

"Really cool, huh?" AJ sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "What happened in it?"

"Well we were in this super big field, and there was grass everywhere! And you and me were both sitting under this big tree that had these pretty yellow flowers under it! So you were sitting there and I was making a flower crown on your head, which now that I think about it I don't actually know how to make those. I should look that up! Anyway I finished putting the flowers together and I put them on your head so we both had really cute flowers crowns, but that was when the really cool and weird thing happened!" The girl finally paused for a moment. "The flowers on your crown suddenly turned into different colored souls!"

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Really?"

"Yeah! They were so cool! All those pretty little colors around your head, and they were all glowing too! It just looked so cool! And then the ones on my head turned into souls too! So we both had a bunch of pretty colored hearts floating around our heads! And then I woke up!"

"Huh. That does sound cool, and weird." AJ commented. "Why are you so spun though?" He asked.

"I don't know!" She answered immediately. "I just woke up feeling really good and happy and stuff! Putting a flower crown on your head was really fun, so I'm gonna learn how to do that."

"Well at least you slept well." The boy commented before standing up from his bed and stretching. "Time for food." In response, the hyper child rushed out the door. "Hey! Don't run down the stai- Frisk?" He cut himself off when he noticed the paper on the floor, and the girl stopped before the stairs to look back at him. "You stepped on a note."

"Hey, wait, I don't smell pancakes." Frisk noticed.

The older one read the note he had picked up from the floor and squinted to make sure he was reading it right, because he couldn't believe what he was reading. "T-Toriel! You can't just leave without waking us up to take a- Wait _she's learning to drive_!?"

"Oh! I guess she should learn to drive. I wouldn't have to take the bus then." The child realized.

"Well yeah, but… Frisk I don't think Toriel is the kind of person who should drive." AJ said worryingly.

"Why not?" Frisk asked, confused.

"Well when I picture Toriel driving, I see two things. One, her bumping into stuff a lot, and two, being really slow. Someone as sweet and nice as her is just… I just can't imagine it going well." He explained.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. She's smart! She can learn how to drive so she isn't too slow and she doesn't bump into stuff." She said confidently. "But that doesn't matter right now! What are we gonna eat?"

AJ walked past her and started down the stairs. "Well the only reason she was able to leave like this is cause she knew we had cereal." He answered.

"What!? Cereal!?" Frisk whined as they entered the kitchen.

"I know, right? What's wrong with her? How _dare_ she make us have _cereal_ for breakfast?" He asked sarcastically.

Having it put into words made her realize how silly she was being and she giggled. She took the bowl she was handed and they filled their bowls with cereal.

"Also, apparently the school called Toriel and she was told that you can't just skip out on school, so you have to go back today." The teen said with a tone that made it clear he wasn't happy with what he was saying.

"It's okay, AJ. I'll be fine, really. I won't let them get to me anymore." She said calmly.

"Still don't want you there." He said simply. "The kids are terrible, but it's the school too. Public schools in general are just hell because the school either won't lift a finger to stop bullying or just doesn't care." He said bitterly. "Like, I'm sorry you don't get paid enough, but is it so hard to care once and awhile!?" He looked up at his friend and sighed. "Sorry."

"You say sorry too much." Frisk noted.

"Maybe I just do a lot of things I need to say sorry for?" AJ countered.

The girl hummed in thought for a moment. "Nope! You just say sorry too much!"

He smiled slightly and rolled his eyes. "Agree to disagree then, got it." They continued eating for a bit before the teen's face suddenly paled. "Frisk?"

The girl looked up with a mouth full of cereal. "Hmm?"

"What time is it?"

Her eyes widened and she swallowed her food before pulling out her phone that she got back in the Underground. "Ah!" She shouted.

The older one pulled out his more modern phone as well. "Heeey we only have ten minutes to get to school and we've already missed the bus!" AJ said with false cheerfulness. "WE GOTTA GO NOW!"

The two humans quickly shot up from their seats and rushed to get their shoes on, with Frisk also getting her school supplies and putting her backpack on. They rushed out the door and AJ made sure to lock the door.

"Wait, why are we both going to school!?" The panicking girl asked.

"Because what's the shortest distance between two points!?" He asked in response. He paused for only a second before turning and creating a floating green platform a short distance off the ground. "STRAIGHT LINE! Let's go! Run as fast as you can!"

The two humans jumped on the platform as the kind soul created another one even higher up. They both jumped to that one and he removed the previous platform so he could create another one that was above any houses they might pass over on their way straight towards the school. 'Alright, this is gonna be fun.' He thought as he let out his soul to let him use his magic a bit easier. He needed all the help he could get considering he's never used his magic this much before and he's only been a mage for almost three weeks now.

New platforms kept appearing in front of them as the ones behind them faded away when he stopped focusing on them. Willing their soul energy into their leg muscles allowed them to run a bit faster than normal as they passed over people's houses and streets that normally would have taken time to cross. They avoided the danger of cars and pretty much every other physical obstacle normal people had to deal with.

Using his magic more than he had done before was staring to become taxing. "I can't keep doing this… Get ready to start jumping." He said as the platforms stopped appearing constantly in front of them, and were instead spread far apart. Thankfully they could jump inhuman distances and heights and simply jumped from platform to platform. It was honestly a major struggle to keep the platforms going. He had created so many more than he had ever made before and he was amazed that he hadn't given up yet. But giving up meant them falling on someone's house or in the middle of a street, and he didn't want Frisk to be late either.

What he felt was much like how you feel when doing any major physical labor and you feel like you can't possibly do any more, but you keep doing it anyway. Nonstop sprinting wasn't helping either. But much to AJ's relief, they soon could clearly see the school and eventually passed over the last building between them and the school. The platforms vanished below them and they landed across the street from the school. To be specific, Frisk landed and stumped a bit while AJ landed in a botched roll that ended with him on his back. He didn't really care to get up though.

They noticed the bus was already there. "Well… at least you're not as late as you would have been…" He said with a weak chuckle as he breathed heavily.

The fact that he had worked so hard to get her somewhere he didn't even want her to be, did not go unnoticed by her. "Thank you so much, AJ." She pulled him up from the ground to hug him.

"Just get to school already you idiot." He ordered with a weak smile.

"Alright." She said with a chuckle before turning around, looking both ways, and running across the street, waving back to him as she went.

Once he'd seen her get across safely he let his back hit the ground again as he continued trying to breathe normally. "I'm just not gonna move forever…" He commented aloud. 'Damn it, Toriel… You didn't put much thought into this, did you? We have no alarms!'

"What… the hell… was that?" Someone nearby asked.

AJ looked to his right and noticed two teens that were at least his age standing there and staring at him. "Oh… hi…" He said, embarrassed. "You know… when you deal with magic and beings made of it daily… this isn't that weird."

Both of the other teens were swearing hooded sweatshirts, though the one with the dark grey had his hood on. His lighter skin was still easy to see though. The darker skinned one had his dark green hood down and you could clearly see his short black hair. The two guys were silent for a moment until the black guy chuckled and held out his hand for the mage.

"Yeah, well, maybe that's normal for you, but me and my pal here, walking down and minding our business when suddenly you and that kid fall from the sky, that ain't normal, man." He said as he pulled him up.

Now standing on his own, AJ chuckled in response. "Yeah, alright, that's fair. Three weeks ago I wouldn't have found that normal either."

"Hey where the hell have you been anyway?" The black one asked. "You haven't posted anything in like three days."

The mage's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, yeah, oops. I meant to just take a break from the internet for a day, but then I just got busy. I'll try to post something today though as soon as I get back."

The talkative one looked him over for a second. "You out of shape or something?"

AJ was still slumped over slightly and clearly breathing a bit heavily. "Man, I just ran at absolute full sprint for _at least_ ten minutes while creating magical barriers the entire way. I am tired in ways I can't even explain!"

The guy raised his hands in surrender. "You know what? I'll just take your word for it, man."

The mage smiled. "Well, I'm gonna get going, but thanks for not being a jerk." He turned to walk away before suddenly spinning back around. "Wait. What's your opinion on monsters?"

The guy shrugged before answering easily. "I think they should be in their own town away from everyone else."

AJ felt anger build up in him before he could even think of a response to that.

"It'd be easier for everyone, you know? The humans that hate monsters wouldn't have to deal with them, and the monsters would be safe from anyone that tries to hurt them." The guy explained.

His anger faded before he had a chance to show it and he smiled at the actual logic this guy used. "Hey, that's a good point. Honestly if we had had more time there probably would have been a town built." At that moment he realized something. "But, think about this. If we did that then monsters would never really be brought into society, people would never get used to monsters being around them."

The quiet one lightly elbowed his friend in the side with a chuckle. "He's got a point."

"Man I know he's got a point! You don't need to tell me that!" He countered quietly, and his friend just laughed in response.

AJ laughed as well. "Alright, well have a good one." He said before turning around and walking away.

"You too, man! It's good to see you aren't as bad as people say you are!"

The mage walked away confused. That guy certainly wasn't what he expected. He figured it was just a fluke or something, but regardless he was glad to leave that conversation _not_ hating someone. He took his time walking home and came back to an empty house. This made him wonder how much longer Toriel would be gone.

He remembered what he said about posting things and got to doing that. Within an hour, Toriel had found some time to message him and let him know that she wanted to spend as much time as she could learning to drive, so she could be driving them around sooner. He wasn't sure that was how it worked, but didn't bother mentioning that. He simply warned her to not be gone for entire days in the future and wished her luck for today. He was too lazy to make any food himself so he had chips for food when he was hungry as he spent his time on the internet and doing other things until it was time to meet Frisk at school.

He put on the cloak he wore back in the Underground before leaving. There were some nice people out on the internet, but there were still many others to remind him how he feels about humanity and monsters. He wears the symbol on the back of that cloak, the symbol of the Kingdom of Monsters, with pride.

* * *

He took the normal person's route to the elementary school this time, and arrived just as the bells were ringing and the stampede of kids came out once again. He was surprised to find three kids, two girls and one boy, all notice him and run up to him with wondrous smiles on their faces. They all looked about two years younger than Frisk.

"Whoa!"

"It's really you!"

"Cool!"

"Uh, hi kids." AJ responded hesitantly as they kids all got really close to him and kept exclaiming so many things he could barely keep up.

"You look so cool!"

"Can I wear your cape thing!?"

"You're Frisk's brother!?"

"Can you do magic?"

"Yeah! Do magic!"

"Alright! Alright! Calm down and I'll do a bit of magic." He requested quickly. The kids stared in silent anticipation and he let out a sigh. 'Geez. I hope this kids will be fine with my simple magic.' He held up his hand and it glowed light green, causing the kids to make sounds of wonder. He then created a flat rectangle of magic behind him, which he sat on like it was a bench.

"""Whoa!""" The three kids all exclaimed before jumping up and sitting on it as well.

"All I can really do is make stuff." The mage explained.

"Can you make a dinosaur!?" The boy asked.

The teen chuckled. "I can't, sorry. I can only make really simple, like, shapes and stuff." He then created a floating square in front of them, then created more small squares around it and made it into a box out of his soul energy. The kids exclaimed their wonder once again. "So really, my magic isn't _that_ cool."

"But can't you do that fire thingy?" One of the girls asked.

"Well, yeah, I can do that." He answered, remembering he had that ability. He then held his hand out and surrounded it with green flame. He still found it strange that the flame was a darker shade of green in the center, but didn't care that much.

The kids all put their hands near his fiery hand, but quickly noticed they couldn't feel any warmth. "Hey, why isn't it warm?" One of them asked.

"Well it's not actually fire, so it isn't very hot. You'd have to touch it to feel the warmth." AJ explained, and one of the girls immediately put their hand in the green 'fire'. "Whoa!" He exclaimed in surprise. "Hey, don't go putting your hand in real fire, okay?"

"Mhm!" The girl hummed as the other two kids tried to touch the flames.

"Hey, one you said I was Frisk's brother. How'd you know that?" The teen asked.

"Well everyone knows about you!" One of the girls said.

"Yeah, and Frisk talks about you sometimes and she called you her brother." The boy said.

AJ looked up at the doors that all the kids have been coming out of. "And what's taking Frisk so long, anyway?" He asked aloud, not really expecting them to answer.

"Oh, um…" One of the girls seemed really hesitant all of the sudden. "The kids who bully her were keeping her from leaving school."

"What!? Why didn't you tell me!?" He asked, standing up quickly.

"Well she's never had a problem with them before."

"Yeah, she always beats them. But, I mean, she doesn't actually hurt them or anything."

"And we can't do anything cause those kids are bigger than us. And even if we did help, we would just get picked on later..."

"Of course you would." AJ commented. "Well I'm going to go take care of that now. You might want to get off that." He said as he walked away while pointing behind him.

"Why?" The one girl still sitting on it asked. "AH!" She got her answer when the magical platforms vanished and she fell on her butt, causing her friends to laugh.

"What'cha gonna do now, little monster lover?" Asked the kid holding Frisk up by her hair.

Frisk, for her part, remained calm. "Can you please let go of my hair, Robert? I need to get home and I'm pretty sure someone's waiting for me outside."

He pulled on her hair harder, making her wince. "Who? One of your monster friends?"

"Probably that goat that she lives with." Said the boy next to him insultingly.

"Toriel is a wonderful person and I'm lucky to have a mom like her!" Frisk defended. "But I feel sorry for kids like you." She said sadly. "You guys are probably so mean because you go home to really mean parents." The kids looked at her in shock and confusion. "I know what that's like, and I'm really sorry you have to deal with that."

The two boys were speechless for a few seconds, until Robert finally found his words. "S-Shut up!" He demanded before punching her in the cheek. He paused for a moment before smiling in victory. "Ha! Dodge this!" He shouted before punching her again. "Haha!"

"Aw, look she's tearing up!"

"You gonna cry now? You gonna cry like the weak little girl that you are?"

Two hands suddenly dropped on the kids heads forcefully and gripped them very tightly. The kids both went dead silent as they slowly turned their heads, and thanks to fear and a light above their heads, all they could see was a silhouette with red eyes staring down at them, and they both began shaking in fear.

" _Apologize. Now._ "

"AJ! Let go of them!" Frisk demanded.

The kids tried to struggle free, but the teen tightened his grip on their heads till it hurt. "O-Ow! OW! OKAY! We're sorry!"

"Yeah! We're sorry! We're sorry!"

The teen switched his grip so he had them by the hair and made sure they were facing him. He gave them his strongest glare and felt for the deepest part of his throat to speak and make his message clear. " _If I ever, find out either of you bullied my little sis again…"_ He made sure his face was the only thing they could see. _"I… will find you…"_ He then released his grip on their heads and let them run away screaming.

There was silence for a moment.

"They weren't worth doing that." Frisk spoke up, sounding annoyed.

"They were to me." He responded simply. He turned to her and his eyes turned brown as he embraced her in a really strong hug. "I will _never_ , let anything hurt you, and I don't care _what_ the reason is. I refuse to see you in pain." He ended the hug and held up his hand as a green mist covered it.

The girl smiled and pushed his hand away from her face. "AJ, it was just two punches from some kid, I've been through much worse." She pointed out.

He gave her a sad look. "I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I am." She responded with a soft smile.

He ran his thumb along her cheek. "I'd believe you if your face was flawless, but I can see where he hit you, so let me heal you."

She conceded with a sigh and held still so he could use his healing magic on her.

She smiled her usual smile. Sometimes someone loves you, and you know it, but sometimes someone loves you, and you can actually feel it. With the things he does for her daily, it was hard for her not to feel how much he cares. Then again, she might just be feeling the healing magic fixing her injury.

It took a very short time for her to be healed, and they were soon on their way down the hall to leave the school.

Just before the exit doors, leaning against the wall, was a blond woman that was probably in at least her mid-thirty's that looked quite disappointed with them. "I see two of my students running for their lives, and just around the corner I see the two 'mages'. It's not hard to imagine what happened." She noted.

"Every day my sister comes home from school, she always has a story tell about the kids that bullied her that day. And here is one of the many teachers at this school!" He noted. "It's not hard to imagine what happens every day." He deadpanned before they continued to walk past her.

"I'm going to have to stop you there." The teacher said, stepping in front of them. She was immediately shoved out of the way. "Hey!" She tried to grab him, but he spun around and swatted her hand away, now facing towards her and staring her down. She paused for a moment as she squinted at him. "There's such a thing as being overprotective." She commented.

"Our situation is different. I'm being a perfectly normal amount of protective." He responded before turning to walk away again.

"What's so different about your situation?" She asked.

He let out a breath through his nose. An expression of his annoyance. "You wouldn't understand."

"Oh really?" She asked, taking a step towards them.

He stopped and turned to her with an unamused and irritated look. "What's your reason for living then?" He asked with a tone saying he wasn't expecting an answer. The teacher was caught off guard by the personal question and didn't answer, so the two mages walked away fully and went home.

As they walked along the sidewalk, Frisk stared at his hand as it held hers. She noted the familiar feeling that he didn't want to lose her, as she knew, and she let out a sad sigh.

"I wish you didn't do that." She commented.

"I wish you didn't have to go to this school." AJ responded. "I wish you could go to this school and I wouldn't have to worry to begin with! I wish humanity wasn't filled to the brim with absolutely heartless people that enjoy making people suffer!" He said angrily. "And honestly!? I wish I wasn't a kind soul! I wish I could just punch those kids in their goddamn faces and not feel bad about it!" He shouted.

"Don't say that!" Frisk countered. "If you did that than you wouldn't be any better than all the bad humans you talk about."

"No, I would be, because those kids would deserve it." He countered back bitterly.

"I'm not talking about punching them, I'm talking about your kind soul." The girl clarified. "And morals aren't bad either, it's good that you would feel bad about doing that. Your morals and your kind soul make you a nice person that I really like being around, so don't say you don't want them."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna apologize this time."

"But they didn't deserve it! They have enough to deal with at home with their bad parents!" Frisk said.

He realized what she was trying to say and what she thought, and he felt the need to correct her. "Frisk, not all kids are bad because their parents are terrible, you're proof of that." The kid's passionate expression fell at that. "Some kids are just bad because their parents are bad at teaching them right from wrong. Their parents are just bad cause they probably spoiled their kids. Then again, I was spoiled most of my life, so maybe it was something else for them. Guess I just wasn't stupid and knew right from wrong."

"It's probably because of those _morals_ that you have." She stressed.

"I didn't say morals are bad, I just wish I didn't have them so I could hit some people when they deserve it." He corrected.

"You did enough, okay? You scared them away and they probably won't try to bully me next time." Frisk said.

"They better not." AJ commented.

They continued walking home in silence for a minute.

"She's wrong by the way." The girl spoke up. "You aren't that overprotective."

"What? Friiisk!" He whined.

"I know we're really important to each other and we really care but even then I still think you're just the _teensiest_ bit overprotective." She said quickly.

"Well, I'm sorry!" He said sarcastically and defensively. "I've just felt really strongly about you being hurt for a long time and when I saw someone physically hurt you, all thought just _left_ and there was no physical way I could control myself and do anything besides exactly what I wanted to do! And apparently 'what I wanted to do' was a combination of 'beat them into the ground' and 'be nice because Kindness'."

They eventually reached home, and the teen came to a realization as he unlocked the door to their home. "You know, I just realized, this whole thing is really just selflessness coming into play again. You don't mind them hurting you because you can handle it, and I know that, but I apparently _literally_ cannot stand and watch you get hurt, because I don't want you hurt. And you know what? I bet Toriel wouldn't either. She would've scared them away as well." He said with certainty as he locked the door after they walked in.

"Really? You think so? I think Toriel would be too nice to do anything like that." Frisk responded as she took off her backpack and set it by the door.

"I know she's normally nice and doesn't want to hurt anyone, but I think she'd be just as protective if we were in danger." AJ said as he turned on the TV in the living room.

The child thought about it as she walked into the kitchen. "Yeah, I guess I could see her doing something if we were in danger. But that's just it, I wasn't in danger!" She pointed out.

"It wasn't about you being in danger, Frisk. I already said, I saw you hurt and had to do something about it." He responded. Frisk walked in with a bowl of cereal and sat next to him on the couch. "And honestly, you're protective of me too, even if you don't say it and I don't have to be protected much. I bet you'd do the same if the roles were switched."

The girl hummed in thought. "Maybe." She responded. "If someone was just hurting you, I'd tell them to stop first."

"And if they didn't listen?"

She didn't want to answer in a way that proved him right. "I guess I'd…"

"Do what you had to?" He guessed with a smile.

She grumbled instead of agreeing with him.

"Come on, Frisk. There's nothing wrong with admitting that you're not a pure pacifist." AJ said.

"But I wanna be!" Frisk whined.

"Yeah, but you're smart enough to know you can't always do that." He noted.

She sighed. "Yeah…"

He pat her on the back to comfort her, and that was when he finally noticed the cereal she was eating. "Oh god- you didn't have any food for school, did you?" He realized with a facepalm. "Damn it I'm so-"

He was cut off by her covering his mouth with her hand. "Don't say it. It wasn't your fault. We were rushed and didn't have time to get food."

"It would have taken like five more seconds though!" He responded after moving her hand.

"Nope! My teacher was in a really bad mood today and when I came in he told me if I had been two seconds later he would have given me detention." Frisk said.

"I don't think that was supposed to be taken literally." AJ responded while squinting a little.

"Well I don't wanna take that chance!" The child decided.

"Hey you know what? You're right, this isn't my fault. It's Toriel's!" The teen exclaimed. "Like, really!? She couldn't even make a freaking lunch for you before leaving!?"

"Actually, she did." Frisk pointed out. "It was in the kitchen and we both missed it somehow."

"…Oh." AJ said. "Well, at least she did that then. Still should have woke us up before leaving, or set an alarm at least."

"I think it's woken." The girl corrected.

"Alright one, I'm pretty sure woke is okay. Two, shut up! Don't even pretend you care about grammar that much!" He said with a chuckle as she started laughing.

"What are you talking about! I'm always making shure grammer ish great!" She said after filling her mouth with cereal.

"Hey, don't talk with your mouth open." He scolded. He then realized what he said and fell apart. "I-I mean- hehe! Hahaha!"

"Hahaha! Don't talk with your mouth open!?" Frisk laughed.

"Y-Yes! Don't talk with your mouth open! So basically what I'm saying is shut up! Hahaha!"

* * *

 **As a writer I am thankful that, at least vocally, people know the difference between your and you're, otherwise I would have a very hard time speaking to people.**

 **And don't worry I'll try to show monsters and other people a bit more with either the next chapter or the ones after it. I need to start having some group events in the next few chapters but I also don't want to (Those take lots of effort), so I keep putting them off with whatever ideas I can come up with. Sorry.**

 **If you're enjoying this, don't forget to follow and/or fav. I am also still accepting ideas if anyone has any more of those.**

 **And finally, have a great week everyone!**

 **HEY! When I post on a Monday my outro actually makes sense!**


	8. The Internet

**So here's an interesting chapter. At least I think it will be. Hope it will… Might not… It's a chapter?**

 **Frankly I just wanna see what I can get out of his idea. We'll move on afterwards.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.8

* * *

The Internet.

Not including the UnderNet, if you just go to the right place in the Internet, you will find just the worst, most heartless, angry, rude people on the planet.

Some would say you couldn't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The thing about being famous, well known, or just generally a public figure, is that there's never _just_ terrible people. Thankfully there are always some that are sympathetic to you or your cause, making being on the internet much more bearable.

"Heeey guys! So uh… sorry for not posting anything for so long. I meant to just take a break for like a day, but then I just got busy with life and stuff and ended up forgetting. So… how's everyone's day been going?" A random post was made by the admin of a facebook page titled "The Tall Human".

"Good. You?"

"Heeey he's back!"

"Great until you came along."

"*Insert chain-comment here*"

A large amount of comments flooded in, and AJ sighed as he muted his phone to avoid constant messages. "Welp. Time to join the internet again…" He deadpanned as he wasn't sure if he should be excited for this or not. He liked a couple of nice comments before things got too overwhelming and he decided to move on from that. He read as many comments as he could as well as other posts people made about monsters and what they thought of them.

Being one of the two humans who freed monsters was a big deal. It wasn't just people who lived in the city near Mt. Ebott that followed the page, it was people all around the world that wanted to know more about these monsters and the humans that know most about them. There was also Frisk, A.K.A. "The Fun-Sized Human" since the two decided to go with a theme, and some monsters that had created social accounts on the human Internet followed him as well.

"So would you mind explaining this?" Someone asked in the post. Along with that text, the comment included a picture that was clearly taken from in someone's backyard. The picture showed two familiar humans mid-jump as they went from one floating platform to another.

AJ responded. "She had missed her bus and was going to be late, so I did what I could to make sure she wasn't. This meant using my magic to create a path over all the roads and houses to head straight towards her school."

Someone else commented after that. "So basically this is what it looks like when a mage is late for school."

"Honestly, I don't understand the people who hate monsters when they don't even live here. Like I can kind-of-sort-of understand people who live here and like their best friend moved away to get away from monsters (Not that that's the monsters' faults), and I can understand if people are bothered by a monster in particular that they have as their neighbor and they're one of the noisier monsters, but people who aren't being affected by monsters have no good reason to hate them." AJ posted.

Then immediately followed up in the comments with "Well in the end I can't understand anyone that hates all of monster kind, but my point still stands."

"I actually made friends with that skeleton Papyrus. He's pretty nice!"

"They are annoying. They should have stayed in their mountain."

"Well I mean if your friend left to get away from monsters than your friend is kind of a racist so maybe it's better that they leave."

AJ responded to that one. "Well actually I can kind of understand people fleeing in terror of the monsters despite our best efforts to show how nice they are. That's a fear of change I won't call you stupid for having."

"I just don't like em."

The teen responded to that. "Now THAT'S a fear of change I'll call you stupid for having! You do not get to just dislike an ENTIRE RACE without a reason!"

"As someone who lives on the other side of the country, all I can do is look at pictures and stuff on the internet. They look odd, but they really don't seem that bad."  
"Well you obviously don't know what it's like to live with them!"  
"Yeah, like I said, I live far away from all this monster stuff."

That argument continued. The classic angry person and calm person who did nothing to deserve the hostility.

"Honestly I've had more problems with the people antagonizing the monsters living next to me than I've had with the monsters themselves."

AJ made another post while he read these and many other comments. "Looking at all the comments on my posts and all the things people say about monsters made me remember something I realized. Don't just immediately believe what someone says about something. Always look at what many people have to say so you can make a smart decision on a topic. It's so easy to just say a bad thing about anything and it will seem true. And yes I know you can say the same for the reverse."

"So basically it's the "Don't believe everything you see on the internet" stuff that we all should know already?"  
"Pretty much, yeah." He responded.

"Hey what's it like to have magic?" Someone asked randomly in another post.

"Someone asked me what it's like to have magic and it seems like a good thing to answer in an actual post.

The answer is: honestly not much sometimes. Today I just had to use my magic more than I ever have before. The two days before that I didn't use magic at all if I recall correctly. Though I guess it might depend. Alphys, (the monster scientist for those that don't know) she said that different soul traits will lead to different magic abilities, so you people may get more useful magic than mine. I just make barriers and can heal people, so I don't have that many reasons to use magic daily. Actually, I probably should be practicing with my magic more than I currently am."

"I will now be messing around with my magic while posting and reading stuff for these next few hours. Unless I forget of course." AJ posted immediately afterwards.

"I still can't wait till we get magic! I wanna know what I'm gonna get!"  
"My advice on life, don't get your hopes up. Expectation leads to disappointment." AJ responded to that. "We have no idea how this magic stuff is gonna work. Everyone might get magic eventually, or maybe only some will for some reason, like genetics or something. I hate to be a downer, I just don't want you to be disappointed over something you may never have been guaranteed to get."  
"How did you get your magic?" The person asked.  
"I fell into the place where all the magic was trapped. Frisk and I were surrounded constantly by massive amounts of magic, so I'm not surprised that we got magical abilities."

"Why not let us go down there and see if we get magic stuff?"

"Because the Underground is considered private property, so you're not allowed there. Surprisingly, the government treated monsters as actual people and agreed to make their land private and off limits to the public. They're enforcing it too. I mean really, you've seen what we do to nature, and massive areas like the rain forests. The Underground would be torn apart and would lose everything that makes it great and unique. Besides, I fell when all the magic was still down there, but it's all flown out, so there is no place with where magic is densely concentrated."

"I hate to say it and make it sound like what we have is a good thing, but things have really gone better than I expected it to. I figured all the monsters would have been killed or at least treated harshly by everyone. Instead some people have even made friends with monsters!

Yeah sure, we definitely have a good thing in comparison to what I thought we'd have, but I'm not going to call racism, antagonizing individuals for things they have no control over, and general discrimination, a good thing." AJ posted.

"WHAT!? I can't even imagine why someone would want to hurt these monsters! It's like you said! They would never hurt anyone!"  
"You really trust them with all that magic stuff? They could probably kill us all if they wanted to."  
"They would never do that!"  
AJ popped into the conversation for a moment. "I can see the monsters using magic for self-defense, but nothing more. Obviously the warriors would be exceptions."  
"So you have nothing to say about their ability to kill us all?"  
"Not only can they not 'kill us all', they wouldn't. They want to live peaceful lives just as much as you do. They aren't going to go out looking for trouble, unlike the HUMANS who throw things at houses owned by monsters." He responded.

"Would love to talk with you guys all day (totally no sarcasm there), but I have to go do life stuff! Have a good day!" He hit submit for that post before putting on his cloak and heading out.

Two hours later he would post one last thing that day.

"Hey, so… this is going to seem weird to people and I don't expect any of you to understand, but while she may not be legally my sister yet, she is my sister to ME. She is precious to me and is literally the most important thing in my life.

So think of me as the protective older sibling, and consider this your one and only warning:

Hurt my sister.

I BREAK YOU.

Alright? Alright."

He hated putting that as lightly as he did, but he was fully aware of a thing called "public image".

* * *

The next day, while eating breakfast, AJ decided to make a post real quick. "Not gonna launch into talks about morals with people right now, but I still figured I'd make a quick post to show that I didn't forget you guys today!" And then he muted his phone so he could ignore the comments. He had other things to do today, like be a guard for Alphys and Sans while they do lab work.

He spent the first two hours in that lab practicing fighting against imaginary enemies and using his magic. Then he got kind of bored of that and remembered the internet. He weighed the positive of being entertained against the negative of dealing with the people of the internet, and decided it was worth it.

A familiar profile commented on a post. "Alright I checked that official post about monsters again. So monsters have weak souls and can't possibly kill us all, great, but what about you? How do we know you won't kill us all?"

'They're still on about this?' The teen thought before responding to them. "I have a kind soul, and I'm a normal human being, believe it or not. Why the hell would I go on a rampage and just kill people? I don't even have magic that can do that!

You're just playing devil's advocate, right? Please tell me you're just asking this as a joke and that you aren't actually RIDICULOUS enough to think the monsters and I would just start killing people because we can."  
"I'm just being safe."  
"There's being safe and there's being irrational."

"I can't believe I never thought to do this before." The Tall Human posted, with a video directly below the text.

The video starts and shows white wall and the teen's silhouette on the wall. "So I've explained this repeatedly, but I never thought to actually just show you guys what my magic is and what I can do with it, so how about I just do that?" He asked rhetorically before a small see-through green wall appeared. "These are the barriers I've said I can make. I can make them bigger or smaller than that, but yeah, it's basically just a wall. But they don't have to be vertical, I can make them horizontal and have floating platforms and stuff." He suddenly pointed his phone camera down before jumping up and creating a barrier below him. "See? I'm literally standing like a foot above the ground on a physical object that I created out of soul energy. I just will it and I can create it." The platform faded away and he landed easily.

He held the camera up straight ahead of him and held out his other arm. "The other thing I can do with my soul energy is create healing magic." After a few moments his hand had green mist flowing from it. "Not much to explain here. Just put the healing magic near a wound and it will heal it. Not instantly of course, it kinda depends on the wound."

The mist faded away. "And the one other magic thing I can do is cover my hand in fire!" His hand was then covered in flame that was the usual two shades of green. "Obviously it's not actually fire. It's more like my soul energy taking the form of a flame and generating some heat. It's nice and warm actually." For some reason his hand could be clearly seen through the flame, and anyone could see he was unharmed by it. "And that's it! That's all I can really do with my magic! Well, that and make myself stronger obviously. But seriously, I have no mass-murdering magics! I can't create green barriers and throw them at people! I can't move them at all once I've created them! So… there! Now you have video of exactly what I can do." A voice was faintly heard in the background. "Oh! I gotta go now. Farewell!"

 **Yes I obviously left out swearing and improper grammar, I don't care THAT much about authenticity.**

 **Well IMO the format of that chapter was terrible so I don't think I'll be writing any more internet chapters. Not that I planned to.**

 **Oh well. Experimenting was fun.**

 **Hope you all have/had a good day!**


	9. Soul Magic 1

**I know we focused a bit on magic at the end of that last chapter, but I'm making this one a major Soul Magic focused chapter.**

 **Also, I have two questions at the end of the chapter. Just your opinions on stuff to influence future chapters.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.9

* * *

Alphys peeked her head out from her side of the lab and looked at the older human. "AJ, could you please put your phone away? I need you to test something."

The human ended the video, hit submit on the post, and put his phone away as he walked up to the scientist. "Sorry about that. What do ya need?"

The lizard gave a bit of a proud smile as she held up a familiar metal hilt, minus most of the wires. "I have made quite some progress on the device! I'm still working on a name for it though… The Solid Magic Device? The Magic Shaper? I've never been good with these names… The Magic Shaping Device? That might be too long…"

"The MSD doesn't sound that bad." The human commented. "Though the MS would be nice and simple… Magic Shaper is just generally straight to the point though."

Alphys shook her head to get back on track. "A-Anyway! Thanks to a data recorder in the previous version, I was able to make some improvements to the system. I'm already working on the first portable prototype that has its power system inside it, but I'd like you to work on this one for now so I can test the general improvements I made."

"Roger that." AJ said with a nod as he took the device and walked back into the testing area. He pressed the red button on the hilt and made his soul energy flow through his arm and into the device. Light green magical energy suddenly shot out of the device and took the form of the blade he was familiar with. He stopped putting energy into the device, and found that the blade didn't fade away. "Cool." He commented as he started waving the blade around a bit. He didn't have total freedom yet as the wires were still in the way. "So could you like, explain how this thing works?" He asked.

"Do you really want the complicated science that's all been fit into the little thing?" Sans asked as he stepped out from his room in the lab.

"No I mean is there a simple version that I can understand?" The teen clarified.

"W-Well I think I can manage that." Alphys answered. "I could even explain the whole process of making it while I'm at it."

"Yes, we would appreciate that." Another presence made themselves known, and everyone turned to the stairs that led down to the lab. There stood what very clearly appeared to be a government agent, judging by the sunglasses, the suit, and the super serious vibe he gave off. He looked to be at least 50 years old, with little hair on his head besides his big mustache.

Alphys gained a worried look and started sweating nervously. "H-Hello there, s-sir!" She greeted. Suddenly two younger men made themselves known, though they were wearing standard military gear and carrying large briefcases. "S-Sirs…" She corrected.

"Alright, what the hell are you doing here?" AJ asked, not bothering to hide his suspiciousness and clear dislike for these people who had just come in unannounced.

"We believe you have had enough time to get used to your… magical abilities, so we would like to perform some tests with those." The serious one said before turning his head to Alphys. "Continue."

"R-Right… Anyway, I started all this by wondering w-what I could do to help humanity with magic and technology. Then I started t-thinking about how much material humans use to make things, and that thought led to the magical weapon projects." Her confidence began to show as her passion grew. "I really want to make things that allow humanity to save on resources, and this device is the first that will allow you to do that."

The doctor walked towards her invention as it was held by the teen. "I started with magic capturing technology, which is, well that's just plain easy. We've had magic channeling tech for awhile, though I did need to modify it a bit to capture and channel soul energy, and AJ had helped me test that out."

"Oh you put that stuff in this? Cool!" AJ commented as he looked over the hilt in his hand and remembered some of the first tests he had helped Alphys do.

* * *

"I need you to test something for me." Alphys said.

"What'cha need?" The boy asked.

"Can you just, make some of your soul energy flow out of your hand real quick?" She requested.

"Well that's a simple test." He commented as he held out his hand and created his soul flame. "Will that work?"

The doctor pulled out a small metal disk with a glass box on top of it and swiped the device through the magical flame. She looked at the box for a moment before grumbling. "No. Of course it wouldn't work." She said before turning back to her table to tinker with the device.

"So… what did you just try to do?" The human asked, confused.

She sighed in disappointment with the device. "I remade a simple magic energy capturing device and tried to capture some of your magical energy, but as I feared, a human's soul energy is not the same as normal magical energy and the device won't work on it. I'm going to have to modify it in order to make it capture your energy." If she couldn't make this work, she would have to find a whole other way to make it work, if that was even possible. "You know, it's really easy to make something that can channel a magical energy once you have something that can capture it in the first place." She commented with a hint of an irritated tone.

"Um… I'm not sure how I feel about you using my soul's energy, even if it will generate more of it." AJ commented uncomfortably.

Alphys turned to him in confusion. "What? AJ, you know that soul energy isn't actually your soul's energy, right? It's just a unique magical energy that your soul created after being exposed to magic."

"Oh! Well that makes a lot more sense than using your life essence to do magic stuff."

Alphys smiled a bit at his misunderstanding. "Yeah, you wouldn't die if you were to use up all your soul magic or anything. Though honestly it's like, physically impossible to use up all your soul energy."

"Really? Why?"

"Well I may not be able to capture your magical energy right now, but it's still a magical energy that I can scan, and I finished looking over that scan of your souls from yesterday. You and Frisk have _ridiculous_ amounts of magic in your souls! Apparently when souls as strong as human souls make their own magic, they create a lot of it! Quite frankly, your soul has far more magic in it than you could ever hope to use in a short amount of time! Probably a long amount of time, actually."

"Okay… can you put that into perspective somehow?" He requested, confused.

"Hmm…" Alphys hummed in thought. "Well, I know how much magic you use up for your most basic unique ability, your barriers." She suddenly pulled out a calculator from her lab coat. "Alright, so if you were to make three barriers a second for fifteen minutes, you would create two thousand seven hundred barriers, and you would use up abouuuuut… one percent of your magic reserves?" She answered hesitantly.

His eyes widened. " _WHY!?_ " He asked.

"I don't know!" Alphys exclaimed. "I mean there really is no good reason for you to have that much magic! You can't use any of it for anything! You could literally get away with fifteen, or even just ten percent of your current magic reserves, and you'd be fine because I'm pretty sure your soul would start creating more magic somewhere in there if you kept using it! It really does seem that your soul simply has that much magic just because it can! It doesn't think about rather it should have this much or not, it just makes as much magic as it can hold, and since human souls are really powerful, it can hold _a lot_!"

AJ shrunk a bit in fear. "I am honestly afraid of having that much power inside me…"

The monster scientist regained her composure. "You don't really have to worry. Like I said, you can't even use that much of it for anything. You're limited to that amount you use for healing magic and for those barriers, and that's all you can do, since you're a kind soul."

* * *

"Yep! So once I got the technology for channeling soul magic small enough, I had to create a computer and fit it in there as well." Alphys continued. "That computer has to work with the magic capturing system, but what it's really there for is the more advanced tech inside, the stuff that channels and _shapes_ your soul energy!"

"You got tech that does all that in that little thing!?" The younger of the two soldiers exclaimed in disbelief while pointing at the hilt shaped device.

"Of course she did, it's magic." The other soldier responded to him as they set their briefcases in a corner on the floor.

"It's not magic, it's science!" Alphys corrected. "I mean come on! Humans have made plenty of advanced technology at a miniature level! Just look at what size your computers used to be!"

The stoic agent walked towards AJ and soon stood before him in the testing area. The teen was surprised to find this guy was a few inches taller than him, standing at 6'5. The agent leaned forward slightly and tilted his head in a way that made it clear he was staring at the device through his shades. " _This_ is our weapon?" He asked, clearly unimpressed.

"We could have nothing, you know." The boy pointed out. He didn't even really know why, but he just did not care to be polite with this guy. His kind soul was having no say in matters at the moment. "This is actual progress."

Alphys ran up to the humans in the testing area. "Sir, you don't understand! This is just the beginning! The computer inside this device? I can program it however I want! This can make a human's soul energy take any shape required! A screwdriver, a-a frying pan, a baton, a wrench! Think of all the materials that would be saved if you didn't need to make simple things like those anymore! Once I get better with the technology, I could give the computer inside multiple settings, and suddenly anyone with soul energy would have so many different tools at their disposal! I understand if you don't see the use now, and I get that only human 'mages' would be able to use such a device, but once more humans gain their magical abilities, it will be much more useful!"

The worried monster did all she could to convince them of the usefulness of her device, but the agent would not give away anything with his expression. "It is not up to me to decide how useful your device may be." He said before turning away and walking back towards the soldiers. "Get the weapons ready for testing." He ordered, and the soldiers got to opening the briefcases and preparing what was inside them.

"And what exactly will these tests be?" AJ asked suspiciously.

"Nothing that will fall outside your morals." The agent responded emotionlessly.

"How would you know where my morals lie?" The teen questioned.

The agent held up a cell phone. "You have made many posts that give us a good idea of your moral compass."

The boy could not refute that, so he walked over to see what the soldiers were doing. In the first two briefcases he saw guns, lots of them. All of them small arms that he was familiar with. The third had parts of something he wasn't sure of. The fourth had many a pair of noise cancelling headphones and earplugs for them all.

"Okay but seriously what are you testing?" AJ asked.

The youngest soldier turned to him. "Don't worry. If anything these tests are going to be fun. All we're gonna be doing is firing these various weapons at the magic walls you can make and see how they hold up."

The teen's paranoid mind immediately wandered. "Why?" He asked.

"It's just part of the statistics. We want to document what the mages are capable of, every last detail." The older soldier answered.

" _Why?_ " AJ asked again.

"Dude, you're a U.S. citizen. There's nothing you have to worry about." The younger soldier responded, likely understanding what the teen was thinking.

He couldn't say all his worries and suspicions went away, but they did _mostly_ go away as AJ walked back to stand near Alphys at the edge of the testing area.

"Hey, bud." A voice sounded behind the human and he turned around to see sans leaning on the wall inside Alphys' side of the lab. The human was a bit surprised at this, but remembered that the skeleton could teleport before he showed his surprise. "May I suggest being a bit _less_ antagonizing? You're just asking for trouble at this point."

"Says mister 'silently stare at them since they walked in'." AJ whispered back in response. "I'm not gonna pretend to trust them, just like I will not pretend to like someone I don't like."

"Yeah well, I'm thinking you should make an exception to your rule just this once. The government has more power than whatever some random human you pass on the street has." Sans pointed out.

"Yeah, well, he does have a point. I'm a citizen here, born and raised, so they can't really do anything bad to me without getting in trouble." The teen countered.

"Have you read all the stuff your government has gotten away with?" The skeleton monster asked.

"Heh. I bet 99 percent of all the things you read on the internet were just conspiracy theorists spouting out whatever comes to their head." The boy countered.

Sans chuckled. "You're probably right." He paused for a second and stepped out of the room to stand next to his friends. "But seriously though, cool it for a bit, would ya? We're going to have to be dealing with people like them for a long time, so you might as well just get used to it, and you might as well _not_ be on bad terms with them."

"I'd be surprised if I was on bad terms with them over justified suspicion." AJ commented in response.

"Surprise!" Frisk shouted as she jumped into the room from the stairs. She then looked around in confusion. "Hey, who are these guys?"

"Ah, excellent, we can get our full range of testing done today." The agent commented at the sight of the girl.

"And what do the tests with her involve?" The teen asked.

"We believe it has been long enough for you three to develop your abilities and would like to catalogue exactly what you two are capable of, that is all." The agent answered.

"Is that why you waited three weeks to do this? Cause that's not how it works. We don't just get new powers randomly, we have what we have and simply get better at it." AJ explained.

"We had no way of knowing that, so we waited to see if anything new came up, as well as letting you develop your current abilities. But we also did not want to wait too long to catalogue everything." The stoic one responded.

"Alright so what the heck are _you_ doing here?" The teen asked in confusion as the girl walked up to them.

"Well I texted mom and told her that I was heading home, but then she texted back and told me she wasn't home and that she wanted me to come here instead of being alone at home." Frisk explained.

"Wow." AJ commented in surprise. Toriel thought all they did was test dangerous weapons here, so he was a bit surprised she would send Frisk here, even though it did make sense to do so.

"Hey kid." Sans waved. "Haven't seen you in a few days."

"Hi sans!" Frisk replied before hugging the skeleton. "I'm sorry I haven't been by in awhile. Wanna go to Grillby's after this to make up for it?"

The short skeleton chuckled. "You know I'd never turn down a trip to Grillby's."

"Alright, let us get the documentation started." The agent spoke up. "Would the two mages please step into the testing area."

The magic empowered humans did as they were told. "What's all this stuff he's talking about?" Frisk asked.

"They want to know exactly what we can do with our magic, and then they're gonna do some tests with my barriers." AJ explained. "We shouldn't have to worry though." He added in case she was worried.

"Alright, first, show and explain what you're 'kind' soul can do." The agent requested.

The boy sighed considering he had just done this with the video. "Well, what I can do specifically is create the barriers, as you've seen." He created a wall next to him. "I draw enough soul energy to my hand and activate it as I imagine where the platform or wall should be at, and it'll appear. For some reason I can only make them horizontal or vertical, no in between diagonal stuff. Along with that I can create healing magic." His hand began creating green mist after a moment. "Once I get a steady flow of soul energy flowing into my hand I can activate it with the want to turn it into healing magic, and the energy will start converting itself into healing energies. I just put the magic near a wound and it will heal on its own, with no focus on my part besides creating the energy. And that's all that I alone can do."

"And the girl? What can she do?" The agent asked.

AJ created a wall in front of them both for Frisk to show her soul magic. "Um, well… I can do this." The girl said hesitantly as she stepped forward and reached for the barrier. Her hand changed to match the color of her soul and glowed the same color. She touched the barrier with that hand and it fell apart from her touch, creating a hole that she could easily walk through. The older mage removed the barrier before creating another one in its place. "Oh! And I can do this." She touched the new barrier, and the wall pulsed red for a moment before suddenly falling apart entirely. "I just, you know, put magic into my hand and activate it how I want to." She explained lamely as she wasn't sure what else to say.

"Is that all you can do?" The agent asked curiously.

"Yep." Frisk answered with a nod.

"Hmm." The agent hummed as he things down on a notepad he had pulled out. "Alright, the girl is not needed for any further testing. You both can step out from there now." The two mages walked up the small ramp to leave the testing area and Frisk walked back next to Alphys and sans. "Time for you two to do your jobs." He said to the two soldiers. "Put ear protection on if you have not already."

The younger soldier walked up to the ramp of the testing area. "Hey, kid, mind making one of those barriers down there for me?" He requested to the teen beside him. AJ made a large green wall in the testing area. "Thanks." The soldier then pulled out a pistol and loaded it. "Alright! Beretta nine mil, firing!"

*BANG!*

Two clink sounds followed. One was the spent shell hitting the ground, the other was the bullet hitting the floor in the testing area. There wasn't even a mark on the wall. "Huh. Not bad." The soldier commented.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

"You wanna shoot?" The soldier asked the boy.

A strong "Nope!" was his immediate response as he took a few steps back.

"Heh. More for me then." The soldier fired off the rest of the magazine into the magical wall. All the bullets fell to the floor. "Well, that thing's holding up better than I thought it would." He holstered his pistol before going back to his briefcase and coming back with an MP5. "Let's see how it stands up to this."

The 'civilians' flinched a bit as the man fired off long bursts from the SMG into the center of the barrier. They looked closely and noticed a small crack on the barrier. "Alright alright, that's fair. Bullets weren't made to go through walls anyway." The young soldier said as he took some steps back and let his comrade take his place.

"Of course they didn't go through a magic wall. You can't expect little bullets to do that." The older soldier said as he stepped up with an M4 rifle. "Five five six by forty five NATO test. Firing!"

The younger humans and the monsters all either covered their ears or pressed down on their headsets as the soldier fired off bursts of his rifle until it was empty. Each shot caused the cracks to grow, and more cracks to appear on the magic wall. By the time he was done firing, the large cracks in the center had spread through most of the barrier.

"What does that feel like?" Alphys asked the mage. "Does it feel like it's close to breaking."

"Sure looks like it is." Sans noted.

"It doesn't feel like anything. Guess I have to look to tell if my magic is breaking." AJ figured.

The older soldier walked away before coming back with another weapon.

"Is that an M1 Garand!?" The teen asked.

In response, the soldier smirked as he fired his rifle rapidly, and the cracks grew massively with each hit. After only the fourth bullet, a loud shattering noise came echoed through the room as the magic wall fell to pieces that quickly faded away. The older mage's hand turned back to its normal color and he acknowledged that with a hum.

"Sustained fire of a high caliber on a single point will eventually take it down. It does not seem to act like a normal wall, otherwise I would have punched a hole through it long before that." The older soldier noted for the agent, who seemed to be writing that down.

"There is one last weapon test to perform." The agent announced.

"Alright! Time for the real fun part!" The younger soldier said excitedly as he got the briefcase filled with parts. He set the briefcase down beside where they had been firing the other weapons. He removed the parts from the container one at a time and put them together in just a minute. Suddenly he now was lying down to fire a weapon the boy had never seen before. It was clearly a sniper rifle by its size, and it had quite a sizable magazine, hinting at the size of the bullets it fired. AJ stared at it closely and tried to figure out what it was, but this was simply a gun he had never seen before.

"What rounds does that thing fire?" He asked as he created another large wall for them to shoot.

The soldier titled his head to him with a smirk. "Take a guess."

The teen was afraid to. "That thing isn't a fifty, right?"

The soldier chuckled in response as he prepared to fire the gun.

"Jeez. This is gonna be loud." AJ commented as they all braced.

* _BANG!_ *

"It's a good thing the lab is soundproofed." Alphys commented after a moment.

* _BANG!_ *

"Who's the guy that decided a single person needed that much power in a gun?" Sans asked.

* _BANG!_ *

"That's so loud…" Frisk stated the obvious.

The older soldier reloaded his Garand and stepped up to add additional fire where his buddy was shooting.

* _BANG!_ *

* _BANG!_ *

The barrier shattered and the pieces faded away after hitting the floor.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" The younger soldier exclaimed before looking over and noticing his buddy and the agent looked about done with his unprofessional behavior. He cleared his throat.

"It seems that the wall responds more to larger attacks, to brute force." The agent noted aloud. "I'd like to perform one more test. The mages have enhanced strength, so I would like one of them to punch the barrier as hard as they can."

"That sounds like an Undyne job, don't you think?" AJ asked Alphys. He needed an excuse to avoid punching a wall, considering how that ended last time.

The doctor chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure she would love to break something right about now."

"How strong is the warrior?" The agent asked.

"Strong than us." AJ responded.

"Yeah." Frisk agreed.

"Alright. Go get her and bring her back here." The agent requested.

"I'll do it." The lizard went upstairs, and within a minute, a familiar fish had jumped down the stairs.

"What's up, punks!? Heard you need me to punch something!?" Undyne said with her usual… enthusiasm.

The kind soul created yet another barrier in the testing area. "Go ahead and punch the thing as hard as you can till it breaks." He requested.

"Ha! Don't have to tell me twice! NGAAAAAH!" The fish warrior jumped from that side of the room and was able to punch the wall before landing in front of it. With one flying punch, the cracks could already be seen. Undyne let out a shout with each swing of her fists and shattered the barrier with only five more punches.

The soldiers were both shocked and terrified of the physical strength this one monster had, while the agent revealed more emotion then they thought he had by raising an eyebrow at this before writing it down. The more magically inclined individuals all knew of her strength and were not as surprised. "That good enough for ya!?" Undyne asked.

"Yes, that will be all, thank you." The agent responded calmly.

"Wait, do you mean that's all you need from her or do you mean that you're gonna leave now?" AJ asked.

"I believe we have gained sufficient enough data, for now." The agent responded. The soldiers didn't need to be told to pack up their weapons and take back the earplugs and noise cancelling headphones. Soon the three men had packed up everything they had brought in and turned to them. "We'll be on our way now." With that, the three of them went up the stairs and the mages and monsters were left in the underground lab.

"They never warn you when they're sending someone here, right?" The teen asked Alphys, who shook her head. He let out a groan that expressed his irritation.

"Well, I think that was enough excitement for one day. How bout we go to Grillby's now?" Sans suggested.

"Sure." AJ responded.

"Sure!" Frisk answered.

"I-I'm gonna stay here if you guys don't mind. I want to keep working so I can perfect this technology." Alphys said as she pointed at the metal hilt in her hand.

"Eh. It's your choice." Sans said before casually waving. "See ya later then." He then teleported them all to the front of Grillby's.

* * *

 **Sorry for cutting it off there, I just feel like this and any other magic focused chapters should be separated from other content so they can be easily found for reference. There's a lot to the AU and I think it I wouldn't be the only one benefiting from nicely categorized information.**

 **But hey! Next chapter will have some focus on good ol Sans The Skeleton! Here's hoping I can make something out of that chapter… Like seriously tho don't expect much from the next chapter.**

 **Alright so I have some questions for you all.**

 **One: Would you guys hate if I made another internet focused chapter? I know I said I wouldn't do another, but I'm kiiiinda starting to have more ideas for things the internet could ask. Not enough for a whole chapter, yet, but the idea is starting to seem less bad to me. It could happen, it could not. Though that depends if people are like "Oh god no please don't".**

 **Two: How much longer do you think you guys can wait for people to start gaining magic? I, personally,** _ **don't**_ **want to go on for another like ten chapters before we reach that point, but I'm worried I might have enough ideas to do so. I still want to AT LEAST get one group chapter like the zoo or something before that big event happens (That group chapter is going to be my ultimate challenge I swear), but do you guys care or would you like to move on sooner rather than later? I can live with either or. Time skips coming regardless.**

 **Well, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, and I do hope you all have a good rest of the week!**


	10. Playing Ketchup

**Let's get this chapter over with so we can start timeskipping towards the big important stuffs. Honestly my ideas don't have to be done before, they can be done after.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Live Above Ch.10

* * *

(sans. – Undertale OST)

The trio entered the building and smiled. It was hard not to recognize the place, considering it was literally the same building, just moved to the surface. The familiar sights, sounds, and smells were appreciated by them after their long days of school and lab work.

Grillby's was more active than usual, now that more monsters had easy access to the place and it was generally viewed as a safe haven from any discrimination. The Royal Guard dogs would occasionally trade shifts with government units to guard the entrance to The Underground, but at the moment they were all at their usual table.

Along with other regular patrons and Ex-Snowdiners, there was also Aaron, Pyrope, and Bob the Temmie, because he's the only Temmie allowed out of the Underground as long as he stays out of sight.

"Hey guys." Sans greeted everyone, and there was practically an uproar in response when the greetings of sans were combined with the realization that the humans they knew had entered as well.

Quite frankly it was a few too many faces in a crowd for the older human to put up with and he pulled up the hood of his cloak and lowered his head in embarrassment. Frisk had no such issues and was enthusiastically waving and saying hi to everyone, while sans just greeted everyone casually.

"Good to see you guys back. It's been what, a week?" The red bird asked as the trio took seats at the bar. Sans sat next to the bird, Frisk sat next to him, and AJ sat next to her.

"Yep. Been a week since they've last been here." Sans agreed as he looked to the humans. "Unless, of course, you guys came here without me at some point." He said jokingly.

"You guys know we love it here, but I just don't have time to come in usually." AJ responded with an apologetic look.

"I like it here too, but I'm usually just so happy to be home that I don't even think about it!" Frisk said with her usual smile.

"Hey, don't worry about it." The skeleton said in response. "We're all here now, so let's enjoy it like we always do. Grillbz, I'll have a burger."

"Fries, please." The older human requested.

"Yes! Fries please!" The girl ordered excitedly.

Grillby soon brought the three their food and it took great effort on the humans' parts to not drool at the sight of it. They had missed these fries in particular, but any magic food was something they loved having. Magic food was always much better than normal food, and they couldn't stop themselves from digging in.

"Whoa, slow down there, guys." Sans said with a chuckle before holding up a familiar bottle. "Don't you wanna… _ketchup_."

Both humans burst out laughing for a few seconds before being cut off by them choking.

"D-Damn it, Sans! *Cough* *Cough* Don't do that while we're eating, you idiot!" AJ chided. It was hard to take him seriously though with him chuckling and choking. "Yes, I'll take that."

"I want some too." The younger human spoke up.

Sans looked away from the humans to glance at the other monsters, and he chuckled. "Three weeks… three weeks and no one's been hurt. Heck, some of the humans have even become friends with a few of us. It's gonna be a month before we know it. How've you guys been doing these past few weeks?"

"Pretty good." The teen mumbled as he chewed.

"Yeah! Things have been super-duper good!" Frisk answered.

"You still taking care of yourselves?" The skeleton asked.

"Taking care of _each other_." AJ corrected with a smile.

For sans, that was a yes. "Good."

"And how about you?" The teen asked.

"Yeah! How have you and Papyrus been doing?" The child asked.

"Well Pap has been having a great time on the surface. He's so insistent on making friends with humans that he actually managed to. Got his own little following of humans that like him, most of em kids. Course there are a few who try to take advantage of him, but Undyne or someone else usually fixes those problems."

"Yeah! Monsters take care of each other too, don't they?" Frisk noticed.

Sans looked to the side in thought and let out a hesitant hum. "Mmmmost of the time we just protect each other when we need to. Really taking care of each other like you're thinking is more of a family thing, even for monsters."

"But monsters are made of love and compassion, aren't they?" The girl asked, confused.

"Well, actually, think about it." AJ spoke up. "Just about everyone in the monster race would help out a fellow monster if they needed it, but not every human would help another human. Some wouldn't care, and others just wouldn't want to get involved or whatever so they just don't help."

"Yeah." The skeleton monster agreed. "We may be made of magic, love, and all that other nice stuff, but we don't all love each other like you guys do just because of that. That would just be weird."

The room around them suddenly darkened and sans lost his usual smile. "But seriously, how are you two holding up?"

The teen shrugged. "Really, we're doing fine."

"You have any nightmares, kid?" Sans asked.

She looked down, hesitant to answer. "I-I've had a few…"

"She's had three, and I've actually had one, but it was nothing we couldn't deal with." AJ counted. "We share a room so we don't have to go far to help each other out with anything."

Frisk smiled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We can comfort each other if we have any bad dreams, or bad days, or anything like that."

"Good." Sans said with a nod. The area around them lit up again and they noticed the skeleton fix his usual smile again. "Now I've noticed that the media people are usually trying to find different monsters to ask questions, but how do they treat you guys?"

"Well I mean you know how they were at the start. Practically antagonizing everyone all the time and posting daily about all of us till we got tired of it. Turns out when I get with a couple monsters and tell people to stop, they actually back off. I mean I still hate every time I see them walking up to me, but it's really their outrageous claims they make at the slightest interesting event that annoy me the most."

"Yeah, they totally went insane when you stopped that fight." The skeleton responded.

"Right!? Like those guys were out of hand and bothering everyone and I went 'hey, I can totally stop this', so I did! And they acted like that was some insane thing that no one ever does or is allowed to do!" AJ complained.

"And how've they been treating you, Frisk?" Sans asked.

"Pfft. She doesn't even care…" The teen mumbled.

"I'd like to talk to them more! I don't see why they're so bad!" The child said honestly.

"That's cause I keep them away from you." AJ commented.

"Well maybe you shouldn't!" Frisk responded as she spun around in her seat to face her fellow human. "Maybe you should let me talk to them so I can see if they're actually bad or not?"

"I don't want to see you on the news." He responded with an annoyed tone as he angrily ate another fry.

"Then don't turn on the news!" Frisk responded.

"I don't like knowing you're on the news!" He corrected.

"Why!?" Asked the confused child.

"Guys, come on. There's no reason to be arguing right now. Just relax." The skeleton requested calmly. "Besides, I don't want you on TV either."

"What!?" Frisk asked, surprised and annoyed.

"It just… doesn't feel right to me. I don't like it." Sans "explained".

"Exactly!" AJ agreed.

The girl pouted. "That's dumb…"

Sans chuckled at that before patting her on the back. "That's how love is sometimes, kiddo."

The teen let out a quick laugh. "Oh yeah! Now you understand how I feel!" He then leaned close to her to make his point clear. "Sometimes the people we love do things for us that annoy us, but we love em anyway, don't we?"

Shockingly, Frisk immediately got what he was referring to and turned to him with a threatening squint that would terrify most. "My daily quotes are wonderful and amazing and you should take them all to heart."

"Um… what?" Sans asked hesitantly.

"She finds positive quotes on the internet when she can and tells me them." AJ explained.

"And he's not taking them to heart!" The girl complained to the skeleton.

"And I wouldn't really call them 'daily'. She forgets them sometimes." The boy added.

"I'm just busy most of the time!" Frisk corrected.

"Busy? With what?" Sans asked, not believing she had any reason to be busy.

"Looking for just the right quote takes time and effort, so I can't do it when I'm doing homework or playing video games." Frisk answered.

The skeleton just chuckled in response. "If you say so."

"I do say so!" The girl responded strongly.

"As you can tell, she takes it pretty seriously." AJ said with a smirk.

"And what kind of 'quotes' does she find?" Sans asked curiously.

"Just think of any optimistic, overly positive, inspiring thing and that's pretty much what she looks for." The teen answered. "At least some of it is actually good advice."

"And the rest?" Their monster friend asked.

"I disagree with completely." AJ deadpanned. He faintly recognized in his head that some people had walked in, but he didn't look to see who until there was excited shouting near the largest of the tables at Grillby's. He turned and saw three guys greeting the dog guards and pulling up chairs to sit with them. "Um… hi?" AJ said in confusion.

"Oh yeah, some humans came in last week saying they wanted to see what went on in here. Grillby let them stay as long as they behaved, and they've been pretty cool so far. Made friends with the dogs and have been playing cards with them a lot." Sans explained.

"Huh… I didn't expect that." AJ commented. "Nice to see though. More people need to see that humans and monsters can totally get along like that." He noticed one of the humans look up in his direction and he quickly turned away. "As long as they don't bother me…" He added as he pretended to look interested in other things.

"Hey, sans?" Frisk spoke up.

"Yeah, kid?" sans responded, giving her his attention.

"Are _you_ doing alright on the surface?" She asked with a soft and caring tone.

The skeleton smiled in recognition of her caring for him. "Well, it ain't the paradise everyone wanted it to be, but… this is it! Freedom!" He responded as he gestured around them. "This is what everyone wanted. To see the stars, the sky, the sun. To visit the beach, to breathe fresh air. To have the ability to go wherever you wanted to in the entire world. Yeah, realistically we can't right now, but some day we will. I'll be honest though, I've been spending lots of my free time on the internet, learning about our world and… it's kinda scary how much bigger our world got with The Barrier gone. And somehow I'm pretty sure that I don't even know the half of it." He admitted.

AJ chuckled at a thought. "Heh. Yeah to all of you guys the world is this big, massive thing and you never could have imagined it, and for me it's just 'eh, yeah, it's big, whatever.' I just have no interest in going anywhere. I totally get if you monsters would want to explore the world though."

The young girl propped herself up from the table with one arm so she could get closer to the short skeleton. "Sans… you haven't answered my question yet." Frisk noted, clearly not intending to let him slide through without an answer.

Sans gently put his boney hand on her head and pushed her back to her seat with a chuckle and ruffled up her hair. "I'm doing fine, kid, really." As sans continued his answer, AJ quietly waved his hand over her head to slightly fix some hairs that were sticking up. She felt him do it and turned and smiled brightly at him. He couldn't help but smile back. "I'm on the surface, my brother's happy, my friends are all happy. I really don't have a big reason to be doing bad at this point." The skeleton answered with a smile. It was his new smile, his smile that he's had since he's been on the surface. To some it looked the same as his old, but to those who knew better, the difference was clear.

He knew that resets were impossible now. It was scary, knowing that things were permanent now, but he lived a normal life now, him and all the other monsters and humans, and that meant that everything stayed, good or bad. That itself was the good and the bad of living a real life that was free of resets.

"And how have other humans been treating you specifically?" The teen asked.

Sans chuckled as he turned back to his plate. "I'm not gonna tell you any of those problems."

"Why?" AJ asked, confused.

"Because, bud, if we all told you our problems with humans, you'd both try to fix them all. But you guys can't fix all our problems. Some humans will never listen to reason, and they will antagonize any monster they think they can, whenever and wherever they think they can get away with it. It's just something we're all going to have to deal with." Sans answered.

"Putting them in the hospital might deal with it…" The older human commented.

"And _that's_ why I don't have you deal with our problems." Sans responded with a smirk.

"Sometimes I don't know why Kindness is your trait thing." Frisk commented to her fellow human.

"My soul makes me act with more kindness and less hostility, but it can't stop me from having violent thoughts!" AJ responded with a smile for some reason. Probably just to concern them for the heck of it.

* * *

 **Abrupt ending is abrupt. Just assume they enjoyed the rest of their day. I'm out of my ideas. My mind's drawing a blank here while it's already moved on to the next chapters, so it unfortunately was doomed to happen.**

 **I got one more random little bonus chapter that I didn't intend to ever write. It's nothing special so I'll just post it today. Like literally I'm just gonna post it right after this.**


	11. A Short History Lesson

**Here, have a super short, fictional history lesson from someone who does not understand enough about the real world and should not be making fictional cities with fictional histories.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.11

* * *

A really long post drew people's attention to a particular page on the internet. The latest page bringing up the most controversy of the internet. Not hard to figure out which one. It definitely isn't related to the topic that the whole world is talking about. Nope. Not at all.

"The thing about major events like oh, I don't know, a secret forgotten race being freed, is that those events draw a lot of attention to the area(s) they take place in. Suddenly America or even the entire world has their eyes on one point on the planet. In this case, everyone is watching our not-so-little city to see how things develop here, even after weeks.

I'm not here to talk about that though, I'm here to give you all a _super_ barebones description of our city, and also a little history lesson, since some people have asked questions about a particular confusion topic of our town. But before I do, I just gotta ask. WHY DID YOU PEOPLE ASK ME ABOUT OUR HISTORY? DO I LOOK LIKE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS MY OWN TOWN'S HISTORY? XD

So, location location location… Can you guess what I'm gonna talk about now? Alright alright I'll stop.

Over in the state of California, along the coast, and just about right between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is our now very special city. We got a mountain range to the east and ocean to the west. The people who founded it came during the gold rush and tried to strike it rich, duh. They set up camp in a nice flat area between the shore and the range and went up to mine in the mountains. Yes, people didn't just pan mine or whatever it's called during the gold rush.

Anyway the people who went mining in the mountains, their story ended about how you'd expect, BUT, some people decided they liked it here and started building a more permanent town. There was one man in particular that the people had rallied around at that time. Apparently they went through some really tough times, but that man was able to pull them through, to keep them from falling apart and causing their city to fall before it really began.

You see, this man had begun mining in other parts of the gold rush area, and quite early on he struck a gem worth mentioning. It wasn't gold, but onyx. He soon had to run as people attacked him and chased him out of the area. He then continued west, and nearly died multiple times on the long, treacherous journey. Believe what you will, but he was convinced that this onyx he had found was a lucky gem, and it was what had kept him from falling off cliffs, being crushed by fallen rocks, and being shot or bludgeoned by violent miners hungry for wealth. What I mean is that all those things happened to him, but his wounds were never fatal, and he assumed there was a reason for that. Then he found the area our town is in, and as things continued on, he was convinced his lucky gem had led him to find this place, to meet these people and build this town.

Oddly enough, this man insisted that his name be kept out of record books, and that his legacy be simply the name of the town. The people believed in him, and believed his stone really had saved them from storms and violent attacks from outsiders, so they gladly named the town 'Onyx.' Despite being named after a gem, we aren't all wealthy people. Our city is like any other, and we aren't as great as the towns previously named, but we aren't a small city either.

We have the big part of the city, with the mayor's building, the skyscrapers, the neon lights and constant traffic, it's just not as big as San Francisco's or anything. Then we got the residential area, which isn't really just a residential area, but I'll get to that in a bit. The place is wider than the 'main city', and where, obviously, most people live. That's not to say there aren't cheap apartments in the bigger city for people who don't want to take the IMO short drive to the part of the city that's near the shore.

I can't tell you much about, like, trade or anything. I don't know that much about our city and honestly don't care to know. Still, we are quite prosperous and I know that a lot goes on in our city, just like any other big, important city. The reason our city isn't known very much is because we are hidden in the shadows of LA and San Francisco, which have even more going on in terms of, well just about everything.

Time for that little bit about the residential area being not totally just residential.

You see, much more recently, as in when our mayor recently became our mayor, we had a bit of a revolt that led to an interesting development in the city's… I guess you could say design.

So what happened was some people got together in the suburbs and decided they didn't like the mayor. By the way, did I mention that the suburb area is massive? I don't think I stressed that enough, it was BIG. So big that the people that really lived there, which was a lot of people by the way, decided they didn't like being a part of the main city anymore. They felt like an entirely separate group from the rest, and when the mayor said that they can't just not be a part of our city, they got pretty mad at him about it.

He saw no need for hostilities and decided to try and remedy the situation. He met with people who had been chosen to represent the 'suburbians', and talked about renovating the place to make it feel more like a separate city. After some long talks, they reached an agreement, and a lot more buildings and districts were either added or put where no one was living. Factories, storage facilities, a market area, a commercial district of our own. A little mini one, like you'd see in small towns. At least I think so, cause I don't actually know what those are like in small towns. It's honestly probably bigger than a small town shop district.

And so now our massive suburban area is more like a small town right next to a big one full of skyscrapers. I honestly don't like being in the big city, so I appreciate having no reason on a normal day to go there."

* * *

 **Just thought I'd write that real quick. I originally had no intention of making the town a major thing and giving it a name and backstory and all that. But I had already thought of what the area looked like, and my mind doesn't really let me leave thoughts like that alone. Eventually it develops it more and more and eventually I felt like I should write it. Man I suck at real life stuff though…**

 **Let's just move on, eh?**

 **Hope you had a great week, that the rest of your week is good, and that the next week is even better!**


	12. Another Emotional Rollercoaster

**At our current rate, it would take forever to get to the seven weeks post-barrier-breaking point. So, I'm gonna do my best to make sure that this chapter, as well as the next (probably) two, are jumps in time.**

 **Side note: I am SO sorry this took so long and I'm sorry that it's probably not worth the wait!**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Undertale or anything else I use or reference in this fanfic.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.12

* * *

He opened his eyes and found himself staring at darkness, which was weird, considering he was lying on his stomach and had his face pressed against the floor. He pulled himself up and looked in confusion. His hands were holding him up, and he could see and feel that they were touching something, but there was nothing there but darkness. He decided to ignore that and see what was creating the light in his peripheral vision.

He was surrounded by fire pits, all evenly spaced from each other with 7 feet between them. The space he was in was infinite blackness, aside from the rings of rocks with fires inside them.

Extending out infinitely and contrasting the darkness, the fire pits created the strangest sight. All those little lights extending out into the darkness. It became hard to see them at a distance as they would simply become little blots of color, but none of these pits were simply fire. Many were different colors, blue, pure red, green, purple, black, teal, orange, brown, white. Some of them seemed to be other elements in the shape of flames, lightning, some of it in different colors, rocks, water, what looked to be gravity itself, fire in the shape of a tornado, winds taking the shape of flame, what looked to be darkness in the shape of flame, metal flowing like fire, feathers dancing around a flame, fire that contained the night sky itself.

He couldn't understand what he was seeing. He was in a realm of infinite darkness littered with infinite pits of infinite different things acting like flames. There were so many lights in the darkness, and every single one seemed to be different from any other, as far as he could tell.

Then he noticed the one fire pit in front of him, and noticed that it was the most special one of them all. It was simply normal fire, with its familiar color and familiar sounds. He suddenly felt a need to touch it, and he reached his hand into it. The flames changed to the same light green of his soul, and he suddenly felt like he had left his mark on the universe.

* * *

AJ opened his eyes slowly, and when he realized where he was, he sighed. Slowly he sat up in his bed and prepared to stand up. Before he did, his eyes widened in realization, he let out a relieved sigh, and he sank back into his bed and relaxed. He had no reason to get up today, and neither did Frisk. Toriel wasn't going to force them to wake up early and he had nothing to stress over today. The relief was immense. "Thank you, weekends…" He whispered happily as he snuggled back under his blanket. The morning air was so cold in the house that he couldn't feel his fingers as well when they were exposed to the air, so he hid them from the cold world.

He heard movement near him and he turned his head to Frisk's bed to see that she wasn't there. He opened his mouth to ask where she was, but her head popped up next to his bed before he could speak. "Hi." She whispered with a big grin on her face and gold eyes shining with joy.

He let out an amused snort. "Hi there, sis." He pat her on the head before quickly hiding his arm back under his blankets. "I don't suppose you'd let me stay in my bed all day where it's warm?" He asked despite knowing the answer.

"Nope!" She answered cheerfully.

He sighed as if he was annoyed. "Alright then…" He reluctantly got out of bed and covered his hands in green flame.

They left their room and headed down to the dining room to get their breakfast. Toriel turned and greeted them before noticing the older human was constantly using his magic. "My child, why are your hands on fire? Are you just practicing your magic?"

"No, it's cold! Can't you-" He cut himself off when he realized she was covered in fur and probably didn't feel cold at all. "No… no you can't…"

"Oh! Is it cold for you both?" Goat Mom asked, surprised and concerned. The two humans nodded. "Oh I am so sorry! I did not know!" She said apologetically. "I will go turn on the heater."

While the monster woman left the kitchen to find the thermostat, Frisk decided to see if her soul flame would be warm enough for her own hands. Once she got her hands to generate the pretty red flame, she breathed a sigh of relief. "That's much better! Still wish mine was as warm as yours though…"

Toriel came back to see that both her children had Christmas colored flames coming from their hands while they sat at the dinner table. She smiled in amusement before going back into the kitchen to finish the pancakes. The humans were able to successfully maintain their soul magic while they ate and their hands remained warm until the heater had begun to make a difference in the air temperature.

The two humans had sat down on the couch to start up some video games when the taller one chuckled at a thought. "You know, I bet if we just stepped into Snowdin for a bit without any magic clothes on, we'd probably be glad just to be back up here." He figured.

"You think so?" Frisk asked curiously.

"There was literally always snow there, so yeah." AJ answered. Awhile later, a death message appeared on his screen and he heard the sound of someone hitting the ground. "What happened?" He asked.

The girl took a moment to stop laughing. "I fell." She answered.

"Yeah, so did I, what's your point?" He asked with a smirk, getting another laugh from her.

"I let go of the button by accident!" She clarified.

"There's no buttons in real life, Frisk. I saw you trip." AJ pointed out jokingly.

She stopped laughing and gave him the best serious look she could, which wasn't much considering she couldn't stop smiling. The look made him burst out laughing. "I'm not talking about then and you know that!" She lightly hit him in the shoulder as he laughed. "I can't believe you're making jokes about that already."

He calmed down and soon turned more serious. "Hey, Frisk, serious question. Would you like to go take a trip to the Underground? I kinda wanna do that now after thinking about Snowdin."

The girl actually stopped playing to really think about that idea. "The Underground is really big though…" She mumbled.

"The Riverperson could get us around easily." AJ responded.

The kid did not answer as she was still thinking.

"Hey, Frisk? A trip to the Underground is nothing more than 'that would be interesting' to me, okay? I do not need to go down there. If you don't want to go back there," He leaned closer and spoke quietly. "because you think it might bring up uh… bad memories… we don't have to, okay?" He finished with a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"No, it's okay. …Let's do it!" Frisk said with a bit of a cheerful tone.

"Are you sure?" The teen asked seriously.

"Yeah! Let's go!" She answered with an excited nod.

"Go where?" Toriel asked before stepping in from the hall.

"Oh! Um…" AJ gained a worried look before turning and whispering to Frisk. "I was kinda hoping it would be just us…"

"Umm…" Frisk looked up at Goat Mom with a worried expression as well. "Mom, we uh… we wanted to take a trip to the Underground again. But um… we kind of wanted it to be just us, going through it together like when we fell." She explained hesitantly.

"Oh… I see…" The monster said sadly.

"Torielll… please don't be like that. It's nothing against you or anything! I would love to go through the Underground with you another time! I just-"

"It is alright, AJ." Toriel interrupted. "My children can take care of themselves, I know this. It is just sad when your children leave you out of things, so I will hold you up to what you said about visiting the Underground later." She said with a small smile.

"O-Okay." He said, hesitant to accept how quick she seemed to be getting over this. He stood up and tried to follow her as she headed towards the kitchen. "I'm really sorry, Toriel."

She turned and smiled a bit at how sorry he sounded. She accepted a hug from him. "Truly, it is alright my child. I know that you care, and that you do not do this to purposely hurt me, and that helps a great deal. For now, I will make some sandwiches with some magical ingredients real quick."

"Thank you very much." AJ thanked before heading up the stairs to get dressed for heading out.

* * *

"Do you have your food?"

"Yes." The teen answered.

"Do you have an extra pair of clothes?"

"Yep!" Frisk answered.

"For both of you?"

"Yeah." AJ answered.

"And you made sure you have your food?"

"Yes, Toriel, we have everything we should need." AJ responded.

"I just want to be sure, my child." Toriel responded.

"I know, I know." The boy said understandingly.

"We'll see you later, Toriel!" The girl said cheerfully as she turned around and went down the hall.

"Yep, see ya later." The teen said and waved as he walked down the hall to follow her.

The two humans walked out from the porch, onto their backyard, and then used magic to help them jump clear over the fence. With that they started walking straight across the open plain towards the mountain range. Frisk occasionally got bored and started sprinting towards the mountains, but she'd stop after a few seconds and then AJ would eventually catch up just by walking. The ground on which they walked slowly began an incline as they got closer to the forest that started just before the mountains. By the time they reached the forest, Frisk was carrying in her arms a bunch of pretty wildflowers that they had passed by on their long walk.

"Let's see… yep! These are buttercups… I think Toriel said these are… Pr-Primrose? Yeah! These are dandelions of course… And this is definitely lavender, smell it!" The girl held up the plant and he sniffed it briefly.

"Yep, smells good." He responded with a bit of a smile.

"And… this one's a lupine I think. Aaaannnd… I'm not sure what the rest are, but they're all really pretty!" The child said and bounced once with all the bright and colorful flowers in her arms.

"Did you learn how to make those flower crowns yet?" AJ asked curiously.

"Yeah, I watched some videos and I think I can do it myself now." She answered before looking disappointed. "But I didn't think about all the flowers out here, so I forgot to bring the floral wire…"

"Oh well. Another time then." He said before turning to his right and walking parallel to the forest, staying just outside its edge.

"For now though…" Frisk trailed off. The teen heard her suddenly take some heavier steps towards him before she jumped onto his back.

"Agh! What are you-"

"Hold still for a second." The younger one requested calmly as she tried to choose between the flowers in her arms. "How about… Dandelion, or the primrose?" She asked him.

"U-Um… what?" He asked, expressing his confusion.

"Primrose is prettier!" Frisk decided before sliding the flower into his hair.

"What did you just do?" AJ asked as he looked up and raised his hand to feel for what she did.

The girl slid off his back and landed on her feet. "I put a flower in your hair." She answered with her usual happy smile.

He couldn't be mad at that face. "A little warning next time you jump on my back?" He asked with a bit of a smirk before continuing walking.

"But where's the fun in that?" She asked rhetorically as she followed.

They continued their long walk silently, admiring what was around them. To their right was the wide open space leading to the residential area and eventually the rest of the city. All the buildings looked so small from this far away. To their left was the forest, and all of its sounds. The wind blowing through the pine trees and what was left of the leaves of other trees, and the sounds of birds chirping and flying from tree to tree. The duo actually stopped occasionally just to watch some birds that they could see in the branches, hopping around and rapidly turning their heads to observe their surroundings.

"I may prefer video games, but even I'll admit that when there aren't bugs everywhere, nature really is beautiful." AJ spoke up.

"It sure is." Frisk agreed, her eyes sparkling with wonder.

They continued walking along the natural barrier to the mountain range until they came across a familiar path leading into the mountains. "Heeeey, I recognize this place!" AJ noticed.

The younger of the duo smiled at the dirt path through the forest. "Yep! This is the path we took when we all came down with the monsters."

"Onward!" AJ announced dramatically as they began walking up the path and into the forest.

Around Mt. Ebott in particular, the trees vanish and are replaced by bare rocky ground at the base of the mountains. There the path along the edge of the mountain is revealed and they began walking up it. Any other paths would have meant going through trees and/or vines trying to scale the mountain.

They reached the familiar cliff and turned to see Dogamy and Dogaressa standing guard. "Hmm? What are those smells?" The female monster asked as they sniffed the air. Her eyes widened a bit in realization as the two dogs looked down at the humans. "Oh! Hello there, humans!"

"Have you come to play fetch with us?" Dogamy asked hopefully.

Frisk looked apologetic. "Sorry, we actually came to go into the Underground for a bit." She then stepped forward and smiled. "But you two can have these flowers if you want!" She then threw her arms up and the flowers scattered into the air and slowly fell back down in a mini-shower of color.

"Well thank you, little human." Dogaressa said with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks." Dogamy said as he sniffed some of the flowers. One of them went into his nose and he shook his head before blowing it out.

Frisk went back to her bestie's side and took his hand. "Well we're gonna go now. See you later!"

The two humans headed into the tunnel, and AJ noticed the girl was gripping his hand pretty tightly. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah!" She answered with a smile.

"Mhm…" He hummed and made his suspicion clear. "They aren't going to hurt us now." He pointed out with a comforting tone.

"I still remember what they did though…" She said in response, her smile gone.

He sighed. He didn't know how to respond to that.

"I know that they would protect us now if they had to, but I still get scared…" Frisk continued. "I hate it, I really hate how much I'm afraid of them. I wanted to save all these monsters, but now that I have… it's hard to be around them and not think about what they did."

"I'm really sorry, Frisk. I wish there was a way I could help you with that." AJ said sadly. His hand began creating green flame and he smiled a bit. "All I can really do is… try to help you feel better."

She smiled at the feeling of the comforting flames. "Thank you."

They continued down the path and into the Underground until they entered the king's chamber. Yellow flowers still covered the floor, and the throne still sat in the middle of the room.

"I'm trying to not think of those bad things, it's just…" The girl suddenly tensed up and shook her head. "bad thoughts are really hard to ignore!" She exclaimed.

"Well…" The boy pulled her up by the hand he was holding and spun her around as they walked by the throne. She landed on the throne and AJ crouched in front of her. "We got lots of ways to help you out. We could talk about random stuff, I could use my soul flames some more, _you_ could practice your magic some more, actually." He realized. He stared at her for a bit before smirking at an idea. "I could also call you short."

She pouted at him.

He then quickly brought his index fingers up to her puffed up cheeks and pressed on them. "Squiiish!" He said in his pitch voice.

"Pfft! Haha!" Frisk burst out laughing.

"Squiiiiiish!"

"St-Stop it!" The girl cried out.

"How can I? Your face is squiiishy!" He responded as he squished her cheeks again.

Childish laughter echoed around them as she squirmed in her seat from laughing and from trying to get away from him.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"Squiiish! Squiiiiish!"

The teen stopped and the room when silent for a moment. Frisk puffed up her cheeks with a big grin.

"Squish."

""Hahahahaha!"" She burst out laughing again, and her laughter was contagious.

"Wait! I don't need wire!" The child exclaimed suddenly before hopping off of the throne and scrounging up flowers. "I can just wrap the stems together! I've never actually done it this way before though." The thought did little to deter her and she began attempting to make a flower crown purely from the buttercups all around the throne.

"Heh. Alright then." AJ sat down amidst the flowers and watched her excitedly work to do what she had wanted to do for days. After a few minutes she was certain it would hold together and she turned and showed it to him.

"What do you think?" She asked with a big smile.

"It looks cool. Nice to see you finally do it." He answered with a light smile.

"Alright, now close your eyes." She requested. He rolled his eyes in amusement before closing them. He felt something gently placed on his head and he opened his eyes.

He could tell by her expression how she felt, but he decided to ask anyway. "So, how does it look?"

"It looks great! It looks absolutely wonderful!" She answered joyfully. "I'm so glad I learned how to do this!"

He couldn't help but smile brightly at the sight of the person he cared about being so happy. "So are you gonna make one for yourself, too?" AJ asked.

"Well of course, silly! We've gotta be flower buddies!" Frisk answered as she started picking some more flowers.

"Well, since we'll have crowns, I guess that would make us…" The teen suddenly stood up. " _The King and Queen of the flowers_!" He said dramatically.

The girl simply hummed in thought. "Well, Toriel knows more about flowers, so I think she should be the queen."

"Alright, then I guess we'd be the _Prince and Princess of_ \- that doesn't sound as cool though!" He complained, getting a laugh from her.

"Next time though, I'm gonna make crowns out of lots of different flowers, like in my dream!" Frisk commented. "Alright, it's done!" She held up the crown proudly. "Here." She handed the crown to him and closed her eyes with an excited smile. She opened them again once she'd felt the crown placed on her head. "So how does it look?"

"You look flippin adorable and I need to take a picture!" He answered before taking out his phone. The girl with the flower crown smiled with a light blush on her cheeks. His phone made the classic *click* sound of a camera before the teen suddenly glomped her. "Gaaaaah! Stop being so cuuute!" He exclaimed, and she giggled happily.

"You know I have to take a picture of you now, right?" The younger human pointed out.

That wiped the smile off his face. "No, you don't." He responded.

"Oh come on, AJ! It's my first time making flower crowns for us! I _have_ to take a picture of it!" She argued.

He knew that was a good reason for a picture and conceded with a sigh. "Fine."

She grabbed his phone and zoomed it out as much as she could. Then she sat in his lap and held the phone out as far as she could. "Alright, say… cuddles!"

"I'm not saying that."

The child let out a grumble. "Alright, fine… Say cheese!"

He reached forward to grab the phone and hold it farther away for a better picture.

""Cheeeeese!"" *Click*

"One more!" Frisk exclaimed as she took the phone. She sat up on her knees so she'd be high enough to press her cheek against his. "Cheeeese!"

"Actually, better idea. Say…" He brought his right arm around her so he could press his finger against her other cheek. "Squiiiish!"

She laughed for a moment before bringing her left arm around his neck to press a finger against his other cheek.

""Squiiiiish!"" *Click*

They both burst out laughing and fell backwards into the flowers.

"A-Alright! I think I could live with that picture!" AJ admitted between laughs.

Frisk laughed for a few seconds more before gasping dramatically. "What!? _You_ are okay with a picture that you're in!?" She grabbed onto his shirt. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother!?" She asked overdramatically before letting go and laughing again at her own antics.

The teen looked at the broken doors leading out once he had calmed down. "You know, there's still a lot more of the Underground to look at. You wanna keep going?" He asked.

"Sure!" The girl said before quickly standing up.

* * *

The two humans went along the path they knew, walking along the edge of the castle, passing through New Home, and eventually entering the elevator that led down to the MTT Resort. They stepped out of the elevator into a place that was much quieter than they remembered. The only monster that the duo saw immediately was the janitor, who waved to them briefly.

"Well this place isn't how I remember it." AJ commented as they walked further into the main lobby.

"It's so quiet… Mettaton's fountain isn't even on!" Frisk noticed.

"Well I'm pretty sure that thing was spewing water on the ground so I guess it's good they turned that off." The teen said.

They stopped to look up and around and really admire the resort. The only memories they had of this place were with sans and when he sat them down for story time.

That caused the older human to remember his more private conversation with the skeleton. He wasn't able to easily forgive himself for trying to ditch Frisk. He nearly left her to die, and the thought of her being heartbroken was hard enough for him, but that would have been caused by him and him alone. To have a loved one be harmed is one thing, but to know you're the one that caused it? It wasn't about rather he had done it or not, it was the fact that he had tried to do something that would have surely led to that.

He tried to wipe away his depression the best way he knew. Turn to his "little sister" beside him, and just try not to think about things like that.

"What'cha thinkin about?" The girl asked without even looking at him.

He chuckled at her ability to tell how he's feeling by the grip of his hand. "Just my usual sappy stuff." He answered.

"It's _our_ sappy stuff, and come on, AJ! You know I don't mind hearing that stuff no matter how much you say it." The younger one said.

"I'm just really glad I met you I all." He said quickly.

"Do you know what it's like to spend all your life never being loved by your mom and dad?" Frisk asked suddenly.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, not really." He answered.

"Good, cause that's what I had to deal with, and it was terrible." The child responded, a bit of her rare angry tone getting through. Then she suddenly spoke with her happier voice. "That's why I can never thank you enough for caring about me so much. Sure, Toriel and all the monsters do as well, but you were the first and you care even more than they do, and they care a lot!"

"Well it's pretty hard not to!" AJ commented with a smile.

They both stopped as they realized they were about to walk into Hotland. "We aren't actually going to walk through here, right?" The girl asked, sounding worried.

"Heh, are you kidding? Our cloaks don't make those deathtraps down there go away. We're taking the elevator." The boy answered before stepping into the elevator nearby.

"G-Good… Good…" Frisk said quietly.

They pressed the button to take them down to the bottom of Hotland and they descended. They exited at the bottom and carefully raised their hoods to avoid knocking over their flower crowns. Frisk was walking alongside him when her eyes started watering. She stumbled forward as he body started to shake and she fell to her knees. AJ turned around and saw her clutching herself as she started hyperventilating.

"Whoa! Frisk!" He quickly slid to his knees in front of her. "Frisk, what's wrong!?" The girl kept staring at the ground as she gasped for breath and tears rolled down her cheeks. He gently raised her head up to look straight at him. "H-Hey, hey! Look at me! Just breathe, okay!? Breathe, Frisk…" He wanted to do something to help her, but he was frustratingly helpless to do anything. Things like this couldn't be fixed instantly, no matter what he said or what he did. He could only watch her gasp for air and cry while clutching his arms tightly. The minutes were slow and torturous for him, but eventually she started trying to speak.

"I- *gasp* I-I just want to forget… *gasp* W-why can't I j-just forget? W-Why d-do I have to remember _everything_?" Frisk asked aloud, desperate for an answer.

He still did whatever he could to try and help her relax. One hand was cupping her cheek to get her to look at him and the other was stroking her hair. "It's okay, Frisk… It's okay now." He said softly. "I'm right here, everything's fine."

She finally looked him in the eyes and he could see even more clearly how she was still filled with fear. "I-I fell…"

AJ looked incredibly confused. "What?" He knew she couldn't mean when she fell just now, and he was trying to figure out how that could be a metaphor or something.

The child let go of his arms and instead grabbed him shirt and pressed her face against his chest. "I fell down there once!" She shouted. "I fell into the lava and I still remember _exactly_ how it feels! A monster knocked us both into the lava and I fell and I screamed so loud I couldn't hear you screaming and it felt _horrible_ and if I think about it at all it's like I'm back there again and it feels like I'm dying again and-" She was completely hysterical.

"Frisk! FRISK! STOP thinking about that!" He demanded for her sake. "Let's just get out here right now!" Without really thinking about it he picked her up and carried her into the waterfall area by the river. Once they were out of the hotlands, Frisk stopped sobbing and started to really calm down. AJ noticed then that he had carried Frisk like she was a baby and was surprised that it wasn't that awkward to hold her that way considering she's not _that_ short. Though in her current state, it really felt like he was holding a small, fragile child.

He created a floating barrier in front of him and sat her down on it so she was nearly level with him. She was hunched over and barely shaking as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. He tilted her head up and wiped the tears from her face. "Just keep looking at me, okay?" He requested softly. She nodded and did her best to keep her eyes on him. "I'm right here, you're still here, we're both fine, everyone is."

"I know… I know…" Frisk said quietly. "I never try to think about… that stuff. But sometimes it just comes up and I can't…" She trailed off.

He let out a sigh. He wanted to find some logical way to fix this, but this was outside of normal logic. Normal people don't literally know how it feels to die. There was nothing he knew of that could possibly help her deal with this, and that fact frustrated him. She was hurting and he couldn't do anything to fix it. He knew he could help her distract herself from those memories, but would that be enough? Would she ever be able to move on from these memories? Would she be cursed forever with a trauma no other person ever has or ever will feel? Dark memories of death and pain that attack her and pull her back to those terrible moments? She's just a kid, but she has seen, felt, and heard more than he ever will. He felt so incredibly sorry for her and he hugged her tightly.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I can't do anything to fix your problem." He said sadly. "I want to just make all your pain go away, I want to keep you happy and keep all the bad things away, but I just can't do anything about this…"

"N-No… it's okay… It's worth it." She managed to say, starting to regain her normal voice. He looked up at her in shock. " 'I would sleep… on a bed of broken glass… just to keep seeing you smile.' " She recalled a quote from the internet she had read to him days ago. "As… _horrible_ as this is, I went through all of it so monsters could be free, and I'm going to keep going through this if it means that I get to see them happy every day. I know you said you would do the same for me, and that's why I'm able to do this. I know that no matter what I go through, you'll be there to help. Because you do help, AJ! I'd still be crying on the floor if you weren't there to help me!" She pointed out.

He paused in surprise before nodding in agreement. "Yeah… you're right." He conceded. "I just wish I could do more…"

"You do enough." She said softly and pat his head. "What you do is more than enough." After petting his head once she couldn't help but pet him more and he blushed in embarrassment.

"C-Can you do literally anything else to distract you, please?" He requested. Looking at her while she pet him was even more embarrassing, so he had closed his eyes.

"Nope!" Frisk chuckled in amusement as he tilted his head slightly as she pet him in different places. He still never admitted it, but he clearly liked it.

He cracked open one of his eyes and took note of how she looked. Once she had recovered from basically experiencing death, and once she'd found an enjoyable distraction, she started to seem more like the kid he was used to dealing with. His annoyance with not being able to do more for her was replaced by relief that she was doing better than before. He smiled just a bit at that, and not for the reason she thought.

'I figured going through this place again _wouldn't_ be another rollercoaster of emotions. Guess I was wrong. Duly noted, world. I will go into the Underground expecting a rollercoaster of emotions from now on.' The teen thought.

* * *

They heard a faint noise coming from down the river and they stopped and turned to the sound curiously. The sound grew rapidly and the older human realized that was the sound of rushing water just before a massive wall of water shot down the river past them, with the Riverperson's boat acting like a surfboard on top of the massive wave. After the wave had gone past them in an instant, there was silence for a few seconds.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

The Riverwoman's boat slowly backed up into their sight again and awkwardly stopped in front of them. The cloaked figure awkwardly coughed. "Sorry I am late." They spoke.

The two humans continued to stare slack-jawed for a moment longer. "What, the hell!?" AJ asked.

"I was… lost in thought." The Riverman explained.

The confused teen took a moment to translate that. "No… Why did you go flying by like that!?"

"I did not want to be later than I already was." The Riverperson answered.

"Why did your boat make that backing up beep when it's a BOAT!?" The boy asked before facepalming. "No, wait, don't answer… magic."

"How did you know we were here?" Frisk asked curiously.

"How could I do my job if I did not know these things?" The Riverwoman "answered". "Hop on whenever you are ready."

AJ sighed in annoyance. "Shockingly enough, the one I still don't understand decides to not make any more sense." He deadpanned.

"What is a decision but a choice we were forced to make?" The Riverperson asked as they stepped onto the boat.

"Um… those two things aren't the same at all?" The boy pointed out, confused.

"They always say that…" The Riverman responded. The boat suddenly started rushing down the river towards Snowdin Town.

"Do you have this conversation often?" AJ asked.

"The answer to that… is a bit more complex than you are capable of understanding."

"Hey, I'm smarter than most." The teen pointed out, offended.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth." The figure said.

AJ sighed again. "You know what? I'll just take your word for it."

"Will you also take my word for it when I say… _beware the man who speaks in hands_?" The Riverwoman asked.

The humans leaned away slightly from the suddenly dramatic Riverperson. "Uh, sure. Fear sign language. Got it." The boy said.

"Not sign language. It is-" The Riverman stopped themselves as the boat suddenly and rapidly decelerated and came to a stop next to the snowy town. "We are here."

(Snowy – Undertale OST)

"Thank you for the ride, Riverperson!" Frisk said as the two humans hopped off the boat and the snow crunched under their boots.

"I will be waiting here." The Riverwoman spoke.

"Alright, time for the whole reason we came here…" AJ trailed off and took off his cloak. "YEP! IT'S COLD!" He shouted and hugged himself tightly.

"Aah!" The child shouted after she took her cloak off. "Cooooold!"

"Haha! Yep! I already can't feel my fingers!" The teen exclaimed.

"I can't feel my hands!" The child commented.

The two humans were clutching themselves for warmth as they stood in the middle of one of the streets of this little underground town. Unlike on the surface, where there was simply some frost on the ground, here the temperature was _definitely_ below freezing, which explained all the snow. The snow wasn't thin, but it wasn't so deep that it was hard to walk through town. They turned their heads and took a moment to look at the place where Grillby's used to be. The space had been retaken by the snow.

"Can we go home now!?" Frisk asked hopefully.

"What? No! The whole point of this is that we stay here for at least a _few_ minutes, so when we go back we'll appreciate the warmth there as opposed to here!" He pointed out.

"I think I'll appreciate it now! Let's just go!" The girl requested.

"Come on, Frisk!" He requested back, holding out his hand for her. "Let's explore for a bit and then we can go." Her face showed she was hesitant. "Sis, what's the point of coming back here if we don't explore a bit?"

"Well… if we're going to do that, then we should go visit Waterfall. That place was really pretty and I want to see it again." Frisk said.

AJ nodded. "Sure. We can do that after this."

With that, Frisk took his hand and they started walking around town. They passed by a few of the houses and noticed most of them had their lights off. They checked the library and found it was closed. The whole town felt different than they remembered. When they first came here all the lights were on and there were monsters all throughout the street. Now it was quiet and few lights were on. They did notice that one bear monster leave one of the houses and wave at them as he walked by, but they didn't see anyone else. Most monsters were still learning to live life on the surface, and they only occasionally visited the Underground.

It wasn't always easy for them to visit. The Underground is a wonderful place if you haven't been there long, but even though monsters are free, the Underground still feels like a prison to them when they go back.

The two humans noticed light coming through the windows of a building at the end of town, reflecting off the snow. They walked down the street out of curiosity and knocked at the door to the shop when they got to it. They heard a familiar voice shout "Come in!" and they did just that.

A familiar female rabbit monster turned and greeted them with a surprised smile. "Oh! Hello there, humans!"

"Hi!" Frisk greeted back with a wave.

"Hey there, little one. What are you two doing here?" The monster asked.

"We were just visiting the Underground and noticed your lights on." AJ answered with a friendly smile.

"Really? Well, I was just checking for some supplies I thought I'd left here." The shopkeep explained. "Turns out, I _did_ leave my extra cinnamon here." She paused for a moment before smiling a bit. "I know it's been a few weeks already and all, but… How would you like it if I made some cinnabuns for you both? Personal thanks for freeing us and all that."

"Sure!" Frisk answered.

The teen chuckled. "As if I could say no to that."

The shopkeep chuckled as well. "Alright then. I'll get right on that." Minutes passed and the two humans were each handed a cinnamon bun. "Here you are, nice and fresh!"

"Thank you very much." AJ said with a nod before taking a bite.

"Yeah, thank you!" The child thanked as well.

The rabbit watched with a smile as they both smiled brightly at the wonderful flavor of her food.

"Mmm! You're going to open that damn shop soon, right!?" AJ asked adamantly.

"Do you really think other humans will come to a shop run by a monster?" The shopkeep questioned, doubting her chances.

"At first? No. But once people know how good these things are I'm _certain_ they'll pay for em." The boy answered. "If nothing else, I just want you to open that store so I can start buying these again!" He admitted, which got a chuckle from her.

"Hehe. Alright then… maybe I will." The monster said with a smirk.

"Good." AJ said with a nod. "Well, have a good day." He said before turning to leave.

"You too." The shopkeep responded.

"Bye!" Frisk said with a wave.

The monster smiled and waved back. "Bye, little one."

They left the small building and turned to the path leading out of town. "So, you wanna go check out the forest? Maybe visit the ruins?" The older human asked.

"I think I'd rather go back." The girl responded.

He chuckled. "Yeah, who am I kidding? I can't take much more of this cold either. Let's go." With that, the duo headed back to the boat.

Or at least they were going to when sans decided to teleport in front of them.

"There you guys are!" The skeleton exclaimed with a grin.

"Whoa! Hey, sans!" AJ greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Frisk asked curiously.

"The guard dogs told me you two had gone down here, so I thought I'd drop by." Sans answered. "So, what are you doing down here?"

"Basically we wanted to see how cold it was down here compared to the surface." The teen explained.

"Really? Well how cold is it down here?" The monster asked with a smirk as the two humans shivered lightly in front of him.

"I don't care to know the exact temperature. I've actually had enough and would like to get out of here now." AJ responded, now as impatient as Frisk.

"We were going to go back to that _really_ pretty place in Waterfall." Frisk added.

"Well I can take you there." Sans pointed out and held out a hand for them.

"Are you sure? I kinda feel bad just ditching the Riverperson like that." AJ said hesitantly.

"Yeah, me too actually…" The youngest one said sadly.

The skeleton chuckled in response. "If I know anything about them, they probably knew this was going to happen. Don't worry, they don't mind."

"If you say so." The teen said hesitantly.

* * *

(Quiet Water – Undertale OST)

The skeleton teleported them both to the most beautiful room in Waterfall. It was the same one filled with echo flowers, glowing mushrooms, lily pads, trees, rivers, and a "star" filled ceiling. They gasped in awe.

"Wow… I really missed this place." The older human said.

"Me too… it's just as pretty as I remember!" Frisk commented.

"Heh. Yeah, I'll admit, this place is pretty nice." Sans agreed as the trio admired the view before them for a bit. "Well, I'm gonna head back. See ya later." The monster teleported before they could respond.

Frisk laughed cheerfully as she hopped across the glowing lily pads, and AJ followed behind while staying on solid land. The place looked just as it did before, the many different glowing objects lit up everything around them. The entire roomed glowed with white and light blue light. He stopped and admired the glowing rivers for a few minutes and noticed his fellow human pick out three echo flowers throughout the room and leave little messages in them.

"I hope you have a good day. I hope your wishes come true! I love you, whoever you are!" The beauty of the place was making her cheerful and passionate and she had to hold herself back from leaving messages in every single echo flower she passed by.

He smiled as she did this and noticed an echo flower near him that wasn't too close to any others. Just the one to leave a single message without it getting into a whole patch of flowers. He crouched down in front of the flower. "May this place forever hold its beauty."

After admiring the area around him as much as he could he finally looked up at the crystals above his head. He laid out his cloak on the ground to repel mud before laying down on it to stare up at the stars. He let out a relaxed sigh as his whole body settled into a truly relaxed state, one that he pretty much only felt when he was in this room. Frisk walked by and noticed this so she laid her cloak out as well.

They laid there silently for a minute before the taller one spoke up. "I keep trying to think of something to say, but… there are really no words for this place. Beautiful doesn't do it justice."

"It really doesn't." The child agreed.

He thought about their time in the Underground, their first time through it and this second time, and one thing really stuck out to him. "I don't know how everything went for you, but for me, Waterfall was the one calm point in the whole rollercoaster of emotions that was our adventure through the Underground. I'm glad it's still that way." He said with a smile.

"Mhm." Frisk hummed in agreement.

"…Well, I guess I'm ignoring Undyne attacking us in this general area." He realized after a moment.

"Oh yeah." She remembered.

"That wasn't exactly calming." AJ commented, and she chuckled at that.

Frisk gasped at a thought. "Whoa! I just thought of something really cool!" She managed to control herself and whisper as to avoid affecting the flowers nearby.

"What?" He asked curiously.

"A flower crown made of echo flowers!" She answered.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh, that would be something, wouldn't it?" He thought about that a bit longer. "Actually, wouldn't that get really annoying? They'd be repeating every last conversation you had."

Her eyes widened a bit in realization. "Oh, you're right." She trailed off for a moment. "It would be cool if I could make a flower crown of echo flowers that only played one message over and over again though."

"Yeah but, I don't think that's how they work." AJ pointed out.

"Yeah… you're right." Frisk said, disappointed her idea can't happen.

In their relaxed state they didn't feel the thirty minutes tick by before they got up and decided to head home. They texted sans to come get them since they didn't really know which way to go to find the Riverperson quickly. The skeleton kindly helped his friends and teleported them to their own backyard.

(Home – Undertale OST)

"Thanks for helping, sans." Frisk said.

"Anything for my two buds." The short skeleton responded. "Welp, see ya later. Nice flower crowns by the way." He commented before teleporting away.

The girl sighed. "I miss Waterfall already…"

He chuckled and pat her on the back. "Me too."

"Moooom! We're hooome!" Frisk called out after they entered.

Toriel came into the hall from the kitchen with a surprised look on her face. "Oh! Hello, my children! Welcome home!" Goat Mom hugged both of her adopted kids before remembering something. "Oh! Is it cold in here for you two? I had turned the heater off, because I was too hot, but if you are cold then I will turn it back on."

"Well, after being in Snowdin for a bit, it really isn't that cold here when you think about it, so…" He trailed off and glanced at Frisk, who was giving him a threatening look. "Yeah it's still cold though, please turn it back on." He requested.

Toriel chuckled. "Will do."

The humans enjoyed the rest of their day the way they would any other weekend. The only difference being that they talked with Toriel for a bit about their trip. They told her about their trip to the mountain and how they got their flower crowns, skipped over talking about Hotland, mentioned their short visit to Snowdin, and commented once again about how beautiful Waterfall was.

At the end of the day, as her children went to bed, Toriel walked down from upstairs and into the hall. She admired one wall in particular as she walked down the hall, the one littered with picture frames.

The first picture was her and the two humans standing together in front of their new home. The next was a picture of Frisk and Toriel tending to the flowers in the backyard. There was one with the humans and skeleton brothers all on the couch, playing against each other in a video game. Another had been taken by Asgore, and showed everyone sitting at the dinner table. Toriel, the humans, the skeletons, Alphys and Undyne, even Mettaton was there in the background.

She smiled as she added a new frame to the hall of photos, the first one to show just her two children. The frame had two pictures inside it, as she couldn't choose which of the photos to put up. The nicer picture and the dorkier picture of her children wearing their new flower crowns stared back at her.

Even as she smiled, a tear threatened to escape.

"They really are too much like _them_ sometimes…"

* * *

 **I sometimes question if putting this in a separate fic was the right choice considering the clear and abundant evidence that people on this site just don't follow sequels. Obviously if you're reading this, you did, but literally 80% of people who followed the original ProtectorTale aren't following the sequel. Like, I can think of a few reasons why you wouldn't want to read this sequel, but I find it hard to believe those reasons would affect 80% of those readers. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing regardless though. No point in not doing what you're passionate about!**

 **Hope you all have a great week!**

 **AND HOPEFULLY I WON'T TAKE TWO OR THREE WEEKS TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER**


	13. A Street's Stories

**YAY, WINTER BREAK!**

 **Theoretically no school should give me more time to do writing, but since my friend doesn't have school either, we're actually playing online a lot, so… yeah. Still doing my best to not take three weeks or something.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.13

* * *

If the roads of our cities could speak, what stories do you think they would have to tell?

Why don't we ask one! The road that the two humans live on probably has a few stories to tell.

…

Yes! He says he has many to tell, and is willing to tell a few right now!

Short story time!

AJ was currently walking back home from work at The Lab. Because of the time of year, it was already dark out by the time he got out. While he was used to this, it didn't mean he liked walking alone at night. He couldn't help but be wary of everything around him and he was often looking around strictly because of his paranoia. It wasn't enough that it was dark, there was a bit of a mist hanging in the air that made it even harder to see. Knowing now that he was on the road that led straight to his house did make him feel just a bit safer.

He heard someone quickly walking towards him from in front of him and he turned his head to the sound. He only had to wait a few seconds to see a small mouse monster wearing a scarf step under the street light just in front of him. "Oh! Hey there, um… Scarf?" He faintly recalled helping this monster move into its new home and that it wanted to be called Scarf.

"Hi." The monster greeted weakly, and the teen noticed it was shaking fearfully. "Why does it get dark so early on the surface?" Scarf asked.

"Yeah, we kind of have this whole 'spring forward, fall behind' thing, so it gets dark earlier during fall and winter." The human explained, stepping into the light to stand next to the small monster.

"I don't like it!" Scarf exclaimed fearfully. "It's scary in the dark! And I'm pretty sure there's something following me…" The mouse looked over its shoulder to where it had come from, waiting for something to come out of the mist.

"Well hey, don't worry about that. I'm here, so you're safe now." AJ said calmly, and the monster calmed down a bit as it looked up at him. "I could escort you back home if you want?"

"Y-You can't protect me." Scarf said stubbornly. "If a group of humans attacked us, they'd beat us both up."

"Uh… excuse me?" The boy said, offended. He then raised his hand and used his magic to create a box around the monster. "I can literally just do that for the whole fight and no one would be able to get you. _Also_ , I'm stronger than you think. I can protect you just fine." He countered.

"Want to put that to the test?"

Scarf and AJ turned around to see a familiar group of humans trying to make trouble. AJ looked at them with a cheerful smile. "Yeah! Sure!" He then created barriers that placed them all in one giant box. "Bye!" He said with a wave before walking away with the monster.

"Hey! HEY! Come back here and fight, you coward!"

The duo ignored their angry shouting and just walked far away from them.

"Wonderful weather we're having!" The teen shouted cheerfully.

Scarf Mouse looked up at him curiously. "You sound like Jester." They commented.

The human looked at the monster in confusion. "What?" Then they remembered the other monster that Scarf had been with when they were moving into their home on the surface. "Oh! No, I was just talking over those jerks so we don't have to hear them!" He clarified.

"Oh! Well that makes more sense." Scarf said, and AJ chuckled a bit at that. The mouse did their best to smile back though their scarf. They felt that they might as well since the human was being so nice to them.

By the time the barriers fell, the antagonists had lost sight and lost interest.

* * *

Frisk was currently home alone. AJ had met her after school before leaving for his "work" at the lab, and Toriel was driving around town, practicing as she was told to do. The child was sitting on the couch and watching TV when she decided to get something to drink. As she got up and walked through the house she thought she saw something through the window. She looked out the window and saw a very large dog wearing armor was sitting outside their house, right on their lawn. Frisk gasped before opening the door and running out to see the monster.

"Hi, Greater Dog!" She greeted as she ran up to it. The dog's ears perked up upon seeing her before it ran up to her with its massive arms and tackled her to the ground and began licking her face. "Hahaha! S-Stop it!"

Greater Dog backed off and shook its head, as if to regain its focus. It galloped over to the sidewalk and stomped its feet down, looking down the street.

"What is it? Do you need something?" Frisk asked, confused.

Greater Dog barked and planted its feet once again, pointing down the street.

"Do you… want me to follow you?" The girl guessed, and the monster dog nodded its head. "Oh! Okay!" She jogged over and followed the dog as it walked down the road at a hurried pace. She had to run just to keep up. "Why are we running so fast!? What's going on!?" Frisk asked worriedly.

She got her answer when the massive mutt skid to a stop and turned to the house they were now standing in front of. Frisk saw the Royal Guard member Doggo holding both his daggers to defend himself against a group of four thugs. Behind Doggo was a pale droplet shaped creature with two black holes for eyes. At the door to the house was a large blue flower like monster that looked very distressed.

The knife wielding guard noticed Greater Dog. "About time you got back!" He exclaimed before his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the familiar stripped sweater. "Hey! Why'd you bring _her_ back here!?"

"Bark!" Greater Dog barked in response.

"She's not there!? Damn it…" Doggo growled out.

"What's going on here!?" Frisk asked.

"These a- uh, these jerks were harassing civilians." Doggo answered while glaring daggers at the humans.

"Civilians!? Hah! You monsters really do think you belong here, don't you?" One of the thugs commented.

"They've gotten too cozy after being here so long!" Another said.

"That's the problem we're trying to fix! You aren't citizens! You don't belong here, and you never will!"

"Only as long as jerks like you are still around." Doggo responded.

"You threatening us, mutt?" The one in front asked with a smirk.

A loud thud caused the ground to shake, and a shadow loomed over the group of thugs. They looked up in fear at the massive armored dog that now stood in front of them. Its tail was not waging, and it was not smiling a cheerful smile. It was under no illusion that this was play.

"Yes, we are." Doggo responded with a grin.

"Hey! Don't fight!" Frisk shouted.

"And why not?" Doggo argued.

"Heh. Like we'd listen to you, monster lover." The thug leader responded spitefully.

"Fighting doesn't get us anywhere! Fighting makes everything worse for everyone!" The girl argued.

"Just let us do our job, kid!" Doggo demanded.

"No! No fighting! You know what everyone's going to think of you guys if you hurt them!" Frisk pointed out pleadingly.

"Then what do you want us to do!?" The monster with knives asked angrily. "They aren't going to go away just because you ask them to!"

Unfortunately for Doggo, Frisk was determined, and only took what he said as a suggestion to do just that. She turned to the group of humans and pleaded with them. "Please… please stop this. The Monsters haven't done anything to you. They're innocent people and they've already been hurt enough."

"Tch! They're innocent and we're not!?" The leader asked angrily.

"You can still be innocent, you just have to stop hurting people." The child responded.

The thug just glared at her for a few more seconds. Then, suddenly, he smiled a bit and pulled out a fairly large knife. He took the knife by the blade and held it out in her direction, and she smiled with a wide open mouth. The thug chuckled before flipping his knife into the air, catching it by the handle, and stabbing the massive dog in front of him.

*Tink*

He paused before realizing his knife had bounced off the armor of Greater Dog. Doggo shouted angrily and rushed them, the rest of the thugs pulled out knives as well, and Greater Dog raised one of its massive arms in preparation to crush the leader.

Frisk's eyes widened in shock and she rushed towards the middle of the group. "I said NO FIGHTING!" She screamed. The thug leader was knocked onto his back, and everyone went silent and stared in shock and awe at Frisk, who was standing tall under the fist of Greater Dog, which she had stopped with her own strength. The fact that a shockwave had actually shot out hinted at the power that had just been stopped by the kid.

Greater Dog quickly hopped back when it realized it had nearly hurt the good human. Said human stood there panting for a few seconds longer, before looking over everyone with a threatening stare. "I. Will not. Let any of you. Fight."

The group of humans took a step back from her in fear.

"I thought only the captain could do that…" Doggo commented, still in awe. When Frisk turned and looked straight at him he actually flinched a bit. "D-Don't worry, we aren't going to fight them!"

"And you?" The girl asked as she turned back to the gang and crossed her arms.

The humans stared at the girl with a red heart floating over her chest, and the two monsters behind her that were willing to fight if they tried anything. "Y-You know what? You aren't worth our time!" The leader exclaimed. "Come on, guys! Let's go." They glared at the monsters and Frisk as they walked across the street and left.

"Are you two okay?" Frisk asked the little grey monster and the tall blue flower monster that had walked up to her.

"Yes, we're fine. Thank you, all of you." The blue monster spoke with a smile.

Greater Dog whimpered and nuzzled against Frisk.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. You didn't hurt me." The child responded with a smile and pet the big dog, which barked happily and rolled over to be pet more.

* * *

"Alright, I'm gonna head out now." AJ said before hugging Toriel. "See ya later."

"Be safe, AJ." Goat Mom said.

"I will." He said with a nod before leaving the house. He hadn't made it far down the street before noticing a familiar figure coming towards him. He approached them with an odd smile, ready to go through what he always goes through every time they meet. "Well hello there!"

The woman in a nice brown dress greeted him with a frown and a roll of her blue eyes. "Oh, it's you." She moved one of her hazel colored hairs out of her vision and looked up at the tall boy. "You and those monsters leaving town yet?"

"As soon as you die from old age, Deborah." AJ responded, not losing his smile as he walked past her.

"That might come sooner than you think. If those monsters are as nice as you say they are, they'd actually keep their word." The 35 year old woman responded.

"No, please don't! We'd all be _so_ sad without you!" The teen turned around and said with a sad look that was very clearly fake.

The woman scoffed. "As disrespectful as always, I see."

"As stupidly stubborn as always, I see." AJ responded, the annoyance in his voice being the first emotion out of him that wasn't fake since they started talking. "And hey, if you want me to respect you, you could always try being a bit respectful yourself. After all, respect is earned, not given."

"You haven't earned any respect from me! You've been nothing but rude to me!" Deborah said angrily.

"I would have shown you some respect if you hadn't started off your introduction by going on about how terrible the monsters are with absolutely no evidence." He deadpanned. "Oh, by the way, has anything terrible happened to you yet that's been the cause of a monster?"

"Yes!" The woman answered. "In fact it was just yesterday that-"

"Did they know that they had done anything wrong to you?" AJ cut her off.

"Yes, they did!" She answered. "And-"

"And did they apologize immediately?" The boy asked with a smirk.

Deborah hesitated. "…Yes."

He shrugged. "And that's how it is with nearly every single monster. Even if you had found one that was a jerk, it hardly represents the entire race."

"And what of your hate for humanity!?" She asked. "A few 'bad' humans hardly represent us all!"

"Yes, but terrible people aren't rare, while terrible monsters are." He pointed out. "Though, I will admit, as irrational as your hate of monsters is, you stick to your ways far more than anyone else I've ever met." He said with a bit of a smile. "I'd almost admire that if you weren't an idiot." He commented with a chuckle.

Deborah gasped in shock and anger. "I can see why you're not with your real parents anymore! They must have kicked you out for being so disrespectful!" She said before turning and continuing to walk wherever she was headed.

"Bye, Deborah! I hope you have a terrible day!" AJ said cheerfully and waved goodbye before continuing his walk to the school. He lost his fake smile and grit his teeth. "Oh my _god_ she is such a b-"

* * *

On the lawn of one of the houses on this street, a bush rustled. The small white head of a dog poked out of the bush and looked around for a few seconds. It hopped out onto the grass and turned to head out towards the sidewalk, only to hear a voice behind it.

"Oh! Well, hello there."

The dog turned around to see a frail old woman standing at the open door of the house. The dog walked up to her curiously.

"Aren't you a cute little thing." The woman noted with a light smile. She leaned forward slightly and scratched behind the dog's ears. "Do you have somewhere to be? Or would you perhaps like to come inside? It's awfully cold out for a small pup like you."

In response, the dog turned and ran away with a bark.

"Aww, that's a shame. Be safe little one." The woman said before walking out to check her mail. "It probably has an owner anyway."

Much further down the street, a young woman wearing a layered blue jacket was walking down the sidewalk when she heard whimpering nearby. "Huh?" She peeked over the white picket fence she was walking by and noticed a small white dog, covered in dirt and shaking badly. "Oh no!" She whined and quickly went around the fence and picked up the small dog. "Are you okay?" The dog looked at her weakly. "You're cold, aren't you? We need to get you somewhere warm…" She noticed the property she was standing on and looked at the house in front of her. "Do you live here, little guy?" Of course, the dog did nothing but shake and whimper, so she held it close to her and quickly walked up to the front door and knocked. "Hellooooo!? Is this your dog!?" There was no answer.

She knocked again, this time harder. "Excuse me!? Is anyone home!?" Still no answer. She got frustrated. "This probably is your dog, isn't it!? You jerks don't even care about it, do you!? Well that's fine! I'm gonna take better care of it than you ever will!" She announced angrily before walking away from the house and continuing down the road.

She looked down at the small, ragged dog in her arms. "I can't stand to see a dog hurt and abandoned like you…" She said sadly before getting an idea. She unzipped her jacket and held the dog close before zipping it back up, giving the dog a really warm spot while still letting its head poke out just below her chin. "How's that? That nice and warm?" The little dog barked happily and smiled up at her. "Good! Oh you're so cuuute~!"

She continued walking with her new little friend in tow until she arrived at her friend's house. Another girl about her age opened the door and greeted her with a smile. "Hey there, Jess!"

"Hi, Trish!" She greeted back. "Guess what!? I got a new little friend for you to meet!"

"Really!? Who!?"

"Well this little guy, obviously!" She answered only to look down and see the small dog wasn't in her jacket. "What!? Where did it go!? Aww! I had found this really cute dog that had been abandoned, so I thought I'd bring it here, but now it's gone!" She said sadly. "How come I didn't feel it leave?"

"It was abandoned!?"

"Well of course it was!? It was hurt and shivering outside someone's house! _Obviously_ they left it there to die cause they don't care what happens to it!"

Trisha decided to move on from the topic she knew her friend felt very strongly about. "Well, did you at least bring some cookies?"

"Oh yeah! I didn't forget those this time!" Jessica reached into her pockets. "Hopefully they're still warm… Hey! Where are they!?"

"So you _did_ forget them!"

"NO! I'm sure that I brought them this time!" Jess checked every last one of her pockets in a panic, trying to find the food, to no avail.

On the opposite side of the town, a familiar cloaked teen was walking down the sidewalk with a tired look.

"Ugh… why do I have to go so early today?" He whined. "What the hell could she need me for _right now_?"

He stopped in his tracks with wide eyes when he saw a perfectly clean white dog sitting in front of him with its back turned to him.

"Well… hello there, friend." He said with an evil grin.

The dog turned its head to him with puffed up cheeks and crumbs on its face. It swallowed its food and turned towards him with a face that was both sad and adorable.

"Really? You're trying that with _me_?" AJ deadpanned, and the dog lost the cute face.

There was a long silence where neither individual moved, and they both stared each other down. The dog had an unreadable look, and the human had a focused stare.

"HYAH!" Moving as fast as he could with the soul energy he had put into his limbs, he leapt at the dog and tried to tackle it. The dog jumped over him in an instant and ran past him. "Get back here!" He shouted as he quickly got up and chased the dog. He created small barriers in front of the dog, but it zigzagged past each one before running out into the street. He chased after it, but quickly jumped into the air when he saw a car coming down the road. He landed on a barrier in the air and used it to jump right on the spot where the dog was running to.

The white dog turned at the last second and bolted away, but the boy was quick to turn and chase it down at full sprint. Slowly but surely he caught up with the dog, but just before he could catch it, it ducked behind a random stranger and whimpered.

It didn't take long for the blond haired woman to figure out what was going on. "Hey! Why are you chasing this poor thing!?"

"Don't trust that dog! It knows damn well what it's done to deserve this!" AJ shouted. "Just get out of the way so I can catch that bastard."

"Absolutely not! It's just a little dog, it couldn't possibly know what it's done wrong!" The stranger shouted back and stood their ground to protect the dog.

"No, you don't understand! That damn thing was in the Underground before we ever got there!" The teen pointed out. "It's not your normal dog! It's got magic inside ii! I've seen it do things that are physically impossible!"

The woman looked hesitant. "W-What did it do?"

The mage's hand glowed green and he created enough barriers to trap the dog in a small green box. "HAH! GOT IT!" He shouted triumphantly. The stranger looked behind her and stepped back in surprise when she saw the magic next to her. "This thief's gonna finally get what it deserves…"

The dog turned around and jumped right through the magic barrier like it wasn't there and ran into someone's backyard.

"See what I mean!?" AJ commented before running after the dog.

Frisk was walking down the street to visit the skeleton brothers when a bush rustled ahead of her. A small white dog leapt out from it and landed in front of her. She gasped in realization. "YOU!"

The annoying dog stared her down for a moment before turning around and bolting away.

"Toriel worked hard on all that food you jerk!" The girl shouted as she ran after it.

She hadn't chased it for long when she noticed AJ pop out ahead of her from someone's yard. The two humans smirked as they converged on the dog. Just as they were nearly on top of it they jumped and tried to tackle it, but the Annoying Dog jumped over them and they instead crashed into each other. The dog landed and looked back at them as they rolled around in pain, and it smiled before leaving.

"Ugh… god damn that annoying dog…" AJ said weakly as they both recovered from their botched tackle.

Frisk sighed. "I can't believe it got away…"

"Stupid, overpowered, magical dog." The boy complained.

* * *

 **I was kinda hoping to think of one more, but at the same time I really wanna get a head start on the next chapter. I promised I would do a group chapter, so I'm gonna do it. Can't promise that it will be good, or even long, but I don't know what'll happen, we'll all just have to see.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you have a good day.**

 **Also, in case I don't get to say it on time: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays for those who celebrate any!**


	14. Merry Christmas

**There's snow outside my window right now. Perfect time to write this, woudn't ya say?**

 **So at the last second I decided to change what the "group chapter" is gonna be.**

 **Regardless, I hope you enjoy, and I hope you are having a good day no matter what you're doing!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.14

* * *

It was another normal day at the house of mages. Toriel was in the living room, on her phone, learning about the world and interacting with other monsters over the internet. The two humans were on the couch, playing video games, attempting to beat each other in a 1V1. All that was interrupted by loud knocking.

*Knock* *Knock* "HELLO, TORIEL AND HUMANS! MAY I COME IN?" The familiar voice of The Great Papyrus requested at the door.

The three of them were surprised to be getting a visit from the skeleton, but Toriel allowed him in regardless. "Hello, Papyrus." She greeted. "Would you like some food while you are here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?" AJ asked curiously.

The dramatic skeleton turned to him. "YOU SEE, HUMANS, I HAVE A QUESTION THAT I BELIEVE ONLY YOU TWO ARE CAPABLE OF ANSWERING!"

"And you couldn't just text us, or search it on the internet?" The boy deadpanned.

"What do you wanna ask, Papyrus?" Frisk asked.

"WELL, YOU SEE, AJ, I HAD BEEN CONFUSED AS TO WHY SO MANY HOUSES HAD BRIGHT COLORED LIGHTS AND OTHER ODD DECORATIONS ON THEM." The skeleton started. "SO, I HAD SEARCHED THE INTERNET, BUT I MUST ADMIT THAT WHAT I READ CONFUSED EVEN ME. BECAUSE OF THAT, I HAVE COME BEFORE YOU TO ASK ONE QUESTION!" Papyrus leaned close to them. "WHAT IS CHRISTMAS?"

"What is Christmas?" AJ repeated, a bit surprised.

"What is Christmas!?" Frisk asked, completely shocked. "B-But there were lights all over Snowdin! And there was that decorated tree with all the presents under it!" She pointed out.

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH CHRISTMAS?" Papyrus asked, confused. "THAT WAS SIMPLY OUR OLD TRADITION OF LAYING PRESENTS UNDER A TREE TO PAY RESPECTS TO A MONSTER THAT SOME KIDS HAD MADE FUN OF." He explained. "THOUGH I DID NOTICE THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT A 'SANTA CLAUS' ON THE INTERNET. DO YOU HUMANS HAVE SECRET SANTAS AS WELL!?" He asked curiously.

"Uh, I don't know much about the secret Santa thing, but around this time every year people start getting all festive and put lights in and on their homes in preparation for Christmas." The teen started.

"What is the purpose of this Christmas?" Toriel asked curiously.

"Well basically it's a thing where people get together, buy each other presents as secret gifts, and place those wrapped presents under a Christmas tree in their house. Then on Christmas morning, December twenty fifth, everyone gathers around the tree and opens the presents that have their names on them." AJ explained. "I guess the 'purpose' is to bring families together and have a nice time and stuff."

"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE LIGHTS AND STUFF THEN?" Papyrus asked.

"All the decoration is to get everyone in the festive mood. Hang out with family, listen to Christmas music, watch some Christmasy movies, all while surrounded by pretty lights, and hollies, and mistletoe, and the tree with decorations _all_ over it."

"That sounds wonderful!" Goat Mom exclaimed with a smile. "Is there any way we could participate in this 'Christmas'. Is there normally food with all of this?"

"Well yeah, just like every other holiday." AJ answered like it was obvious before looking a bit embarrassed. "Course… you guys don't really know about those…"

"What other holidays are there? Are they soon?" Toriel asked with a bit of excitement in her voice.

"Well, the time from November to December is considered 'The Holidays' mostly because of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. The only thing we have left to look forward to after this is the start of the new year."

"Is food usually made there as well?" The goat woman asked.

"There wasn't for my family. Just staying up till midnight so we can officially say Happy New Year." The boy answered. "Oh! And to answer your previous question, I don't see why monsters can't celebrate Christmas. Really everyone just does it as a reason to get family together, and no one's stopping you from doing that."

"THIS ALL SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF FUN! I'M GOING TO TELL SANS ALL ABOUT THIS!" Papy said excitedly.

AJ felt he was doing an ok job of explaining Christmas so far. Certainly better than he thought he would at the start of this. It's easy to miss important details in such a big events. He looked up at the skeleton and his eyes widened when he remembered what Pap had just said. "Oh, right, Santa! That's kind of the most important part of Christmas." He said before looking down at the girl sitting to his left. "Hey, Frisk, do you believe in Santa?" He asked with a curious tone to avoid suspicion. Her answer would determine how he continued this.

"No…" She answered sadly, her head down.

He frowned in concern and wrapped an arm around her before looking back up at the monsters. "There is a fat, jolly man with a big white beard named Santa Claus." He started with a smile. "And the big legend of Christmas is that he lives way up on the North Pole, and along with all the presents people buy for each other, Santa gives people presents too."

"REALLY!? HOW!?" Papyrus asked, his eyesockets somehow full of wonder.

"He has this magic sleigh led by flying reindeer, and after everyone goes to sleep, on the night of Christmas eve, he flies around the entire world and goes down people's chimneys to place presents under everyone's trees. Then everyone wakes up Christmas morning, and opens their presents." AJ explained. He remembered something and pointed to Toriel. "Actually, I think Asgore has a Santa Claus outfit, doesn't he?"

She tilted her head back slightly and closed her eyes in thought. She soon smiled as some memories flooded back. A dirty outfit in the dump, and some strange objects with something about 'Santa' and 'Christmas' written on them. They didn't really know what it was then, but it didn't matter to them at the time. "Ah, yes, he does." She answered. She was glad to know the story behind that outfit, as well as Christmas.

"THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING ALL THAT, HUMAN! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HEADING HOME NOW! HAVE A GOOD DAY, ALL OF YOU!" Papyrus said as he walked back over to the door and opened it.

"It was a pleasure to see you again, Papyrus. Have a good day as well." Toriel responded with a friendly wave.

"Bye." Frisk said and waved to the skeleton.

"See ya." AJ said, worried that things were going to get lost in translation when Papyrus would explain Christmas to Sans.

Once the skeleton had left, Toriel turned to them with an excited smile. "Well, I do believe I have some research and shopping to do. I want to make sure our home looks the way it should at this time."

"Hey, we'll go with you when you go shopping so we can make sure we buy the right stuff, okay?" The teen spoke up.

"Of course, my child. You will know what we need far better than I will after all." Goat Mom responded before walking back into her usual spot in the house.

After a few quiet moments, Frisk looked over at AJ with a mix of sadness and curiosity. "What was Christmas like for you?" She asked.

"Well… how do I explain that with words? There was just kind of a general vibe at the house. It's like I said, the music, the movies, the decorations, the lights… it all just combined and had this certain feeling. Every time I felt that I just knew it was Christmas time."

"So… you had fun on Christmas?" The girl asked.

"I'd say so. Back then my parents were… they were better." He said hesitantly. "There was lots of presents, always a few from Santa. I remember, actually, my dad liked to put presents inside other presents, so I had to open like five boxes just to get to the tiny present inside, like candy or something. The living room floor was always _covered_ in wrapping paper by the time we were done." He remembered a bit fondly.

Frisk sighed sadly. "I wish my Christmases were like that… There were only ever a few lights, and barely any decorations on the tree. There was only music when they'd invite their friends over, and they'd always either tell me to stay in my room or just stand and smile at everyone. They told me from the beginning that there was no such thing as Santa. Mom and Dad always gave me one present each year and said 'Here. You can't say we never gave you anything.' That was probably the one time each year that they were nice to me."

He could see how sad she was getting by thinking about this. "Come here. You need a hug." He requested.

"Forget a hug, I need cuddles." She said before crawling onto his lap.

"Pfft. Alright, cuddlebug." He said with a chuckle.

"Aaaaah." She let out a quiet groan of annoyance at that nickname. " _Buddy_." She corrected.

"Nope. No cuddlebuddys here. You're a cuddlebug." He said simply.

She let out another sigh of annoyance, but soon relaxed and smiled a bit. She enjoyed this. She was a total cuddler, but her parents never let her do this with them.

"You know, it'd be real nice if people just _didn't_ have kids unless they were ready for the damn responsibility." AJ commented. "Yours weren't ready to freaking care about you from the beginning, let alone responsibly raise you. Mine did alright most of the way, till a couple years ago. If you can't treat your kid with some respect, like they're a human being just like you, don't bother. If you're just having a kid so you can look down at someone and command them with some false superiority, don't bother." He let out a loud sigh of frustration, and then he smiled. "Well, I guess this time it's okay. After all, we met, and then we saved an entire race. Though we are kind of a unique case."

"Heh. That's for sure!" The child agreed.

"Whatever though. It happened, and we got a better life now, so let's just not think of stuff like that for awhile. Doesn't really fit Christmas after all." He trailed off in thought for a moment. "I got an idea. It's been awhile since I've had a good Christmas, and you haven't, which is just a pure injustice as far as I'm concerned. Let's fix that! Let's have a good Christmas that's full of lights, and music, and movies, and presents!"

Frisk smiled up at him excitedly. "Can we!?"

"We have the money, I'm sure. Just gotta buy all the stuff." The boy answered. "I honestly really wanna give you a good Christmas now, so let's do it."

"Thank you so much!" Frisk said with stars in her eyes before hugging him tightly around his neck.

"Ack! Frisk! Please!" The teen said weakly.

"Sorry!"

* * *

'It would be nice to just walk around without feeling everyone's eyes on us.' AJ thought as he, a cheerful Frisk, and an internally excited Toriel walked through the long, wide aisles of a Kmart. He had accepted long ago that he, Frisk, and the monsters were always going to be stared at by everyone when they walked around.

Doesn't mean he can't complain.

"Is there a section just for Christmas items?" Toriel asked as she looked around.

"Yeah, but I got no idea where it is." The boy answered.

"Hey, AJ, how come you didn't mention caroling when you talking about Christmas?" Frisk asked.

"Cause I totally forgot about it." He admitted. "It was never a part of Christmas for me. Carolers are annoying in my opinion. Better that we don't do that."

"What is caroling?" Goat Mom asked.

"It's where you go visit people's houses and sing to them. Definitely not something monsters should do." AJ answered.

"But it sounds fun!" Toriel responded.

"There is not a thing that you can say that will make me do that." The teen deadpanned in response.

"Ah, here it is!" Toriel said after they walked along for a bit longer. "So, what should we get?"

They walked down the long aisle, filled with boxes big and small that were filled with lights, classic Christmas outfits and hats, antlers, ornaments, and many other decorations. Further exploration showed that there was actually another aisle next to this one that was equally filled with the theme of Christmas.

"Damn, this place was ready." AJ commented. "Uh, alright, well obviously we need the hats."

Frisk grabbed three classic Santa Claus hats and put them in her cart. Toriel picked up one and looked at it closely. "I… am not sure this will fit me." She noted hesitantly.

"Well, you could wear these antlers instead." The teen responded jokingly and held up a pair of antlers to her.

To his surprise, she actually smiled back and took them. "Maybe I will." She said before putting them in her cart.

"We need a ton of lights, for sure." Frisk said as she looked at many a box of lights.

"What are L.E.D.s?" Toriel asked.

"Brighter lights." The boy answered.

"So we should get these?" The monster guessed.

"Mostly, but get some normal lights as well. Dimmer lights are nice too." AJ requested. He and Toriel each grabbed a large box of lights while the little one got a few boxes of small lights. "These should be enough for outside, these should be long enough for the tree, and the rest can be hung around inside wherever."

Frisk gasped in excitement suddenly and they looked back to see her staring at a Santa outfit just her size. "Oh my gosh! Can we get this!? Pleeeease!?"

The boy let out an amused snort. "No need to beg."

"Yes, my child, you may." Goat Mom answered with a smile at how excited Frisk looked.

"Yay!" The girl cheered and grabbed the outfit and put it nicely in her cart.

"Uh… they're selling all these ornaments separately… Is there any just box of- Yep! There we go." The teen grabbed a box of red and green ornaments for the tree and carefully put them in his cart. He knew how fragile those were.

They continued filling their carts for awhile longer, and they were currently making one last run through to see if there was anything else they might want. "I think… this will do. We got a lot of stuff as it is." The teen finally said.

"Excellent. Let us go pay for all of this." Toriel said. With that, they all began pushing their carts down the large, open store.

The awkward silence at the checkout line was palpable. There were at least two people in line behind them, and the person in front of them was giving them really irritated looks. Thankfully, once they left, the cashier did their best to give a friendly smile to Toriel and the two cloak-wearing kids while scanning their items.

"I didn't know monsters celebrated Christmas." The woman behind them commented, breaking the silence.

"They didn't, actually, until I told her about it." The boy responded, looking over his shoulder.

"It sounds like a wonderful thing for a family to do together." Toriel spoke up, turning to the humans with a friendly smile.

The man and woman smiled at the monster, apparently liking her answer. Before they knew it the couple was trying to make conversation with the goat woman, and they were really starting to hit it off by the time they left.

"Well… those seemed like nice people." AJ commented as they were walking out of the store.

"Yes, they were!" Toriel agreed. "And they actually said that caroling was a lot of fun and that we should try it."

"They are dead to me." He said in response, and Frisk burst out laughing.

With direction from the older human, they eventually had all their lights set up around the house, and considering that it was dark by the time they were done, they were able to fully enjoy the fruits of their labor the moment they were finshed.

The front of the house, including the windows, was lined with bright, colorful LED lights, with a nice set of normal white lights lining their fence on the front lawn, and a reindeer with a glowing red nose on the grass. Inside, the lights lining the windows could still be seen, but there were more hanging along the corners of the ceiling in the living room and the hall, as well as the room the humans sleep in.

The dim colored lights went around the tree, and it proved to be a good idea to do so, because the tree was much more pleasant to look at when the lights on it weren't overwhelming. Once the ornaments were added, it looked more or less like a real Christmas tree. Once other small Christmasy touches were added, there was only one problem with this whole picture.

"Oh! What about the presents?" Toriel asked.

"Christmas isn't tomorrow or anything." He answered with a shrug. "We can shop for presents later."

Then next morning he woke up to an internet that was… active. A _lot_ of complaining about monsters. He went to Undernet and saw lots of posts about all the fun they were having, and all these pictures of monsters clearly enjoying doing festive stuff. Thing is, they weren't really doing it right sometimes. Barging into stores and running all over the place, creating many a mess while they tried to find and buy whatever they thought was 'festive'. The sudden influx of overexcited monsters everywhere led people to see them as very disruptive.

AJ decided to post something to respond to everyone's complaints. "I might have explained Christmas to the monsters. They're really into it and I'm pretty sure all of them are trying to be festive now. I am so sorry." And that was all he had to say on the matter.

He was too busy trying to talk to all the monsters on Undernet to help them understand what Christmas is supposed to be exactly. Papyrus had definitely failed to explain a few things appropriately. There was a positive to all this though. While talking with all the monsters, he had ended up getting into contact with his close monster friends, and Toriel decided that they should all spend Christmas eve and day together as one big family, so he let them know.

Until then, they had a few days to go out and buy presents for each other in secret. Once that was done and everyone had stopped by over the course of those days, there were _many_ presents under the Christmas tree.

Over the course of those few days, the monsters grew to understand Christmas. There are many stories to be told of humans helping monsters, making it possible for them to understand, and therefore help each other understand the meaning of Christmas and what it is all about. Those stories are not being told today though.

* * *

On the night of Christmas Eve, a family made of friends all gathered in one home. Toriel, Frisk, AJ, sans, Papyrus, Mettaton, Alphys, Asgore, and Undyne all gathered in the living room and admired the ambiance. With Christmas themed music playing through Toriel's phone, the lights all around them, the presents under the tree, and the presence of them all, it was something akin to the feeling of Christmas.

Frisk came running down the stairs and rushed past Mettaton while he was in the hall, talking with Asgore. "Oh! Looking fashionable, darling!" The robot dressed in red and white commented as the girl ran into the living room where almost everyone was at the moment.

The older human was sitting the middle of the couch, with Alphys and Undyne on the right side of it. All of them were chatting with the skeletons across the room. Sans was casually sitting on the floor, looking at the presents, and Papyrus was standing near him, making most of the conversation with the ones on the couch. Toriel was busy in the kitchen, making a magical meal for everyone.

"So, how do I look!?" Frisk asked excitedly as she showed off her Santa Claus outfit. It had the classic red and white, fluff, skirt, and the hat on top.

"Oh my god you're freakin' adorable!" The boy exclaimed.

"You look so kawaii, Frisk!" Alphys said with a gasp.

"You look good, kid." Sans said.

"Looking good, punk!" Undyne said with a thumbs up and a toothy grin.

"YOU LOOK VERY CUTE, FRISK!" Papyrus complimented.

The younger human giggled happily and walked around the house for a bit to show off the outfit more. She noticed that everyone was wearing a Santa hat except for Toriel and Asgore, whose horns got in the way and kept them from wearing one effectively.

"SO, CAN WE OPEN ALL OUR PRESENTS NOW!?" Papyrus asked excitedly.

"Not till tomorrow." AJ answered.

"You're supposed to open them on Christmas morning." Frisk explained.

"Well that's lame." Undyne commented.

"It is a bit of an odd human tradition." Alphys added. "Having gifts right in front of you, but telling you that you have to wait."

"Not really. It's a lot like what we did back in Snowdin." Sans pointed out. "Course, you probably wouldn't know much about that."

"No, not really." Alphys admitted.

"I knew about it, and I thought it was dumb even then!" Undyne commented.

"Hey, AJ?" Sans started. "How come there's a present that's for everyone… from you?"

The teen looked at the ground, clearly blushing in embarrassment. "You're not getting any hints, sans."

The short skeleton chuckled. "What's in this box that's so embarrassing?"

"You'll find out later! Stop asking about it, please!" AJ requested strongly.

Mettaton posed into the living room. "Toriel says the food is almost ready."

"Awww… can't we eat while we watch the movie?" Frisk asked.

"I second that idea." AJ added.

Goat Mom heard this and stepped into the hall for a moment. "Sorry, children, but I would like for us all to eat together as a family."

The humans both groaned. ""I know…""

And so they had a big magical dinner together, revolving mostly around the butterscotch pie, and surprisingly, Undyne didn't try to start a food fight.

"So, punk, what exactly is this movie you're having us watch?" Undyne asked during dinner.

"Yes, I'm quite curious about that as well." Alphys admitted.

"Polar Express." Sans answered, and everyone looked at him. "What? The case was right by the TV. Didn't you guys see it?"

"No." Undyne answered plainly.

"What's Polar Express?" Toriel asked.

"Alright, well I've only ever seen two Christmas movies, but Christmas Carol is kinda scary, so we're not doing that. Polar Express, though, is, in my opinion, the perfect Christmas movie, and if you guys are all gonna have some idea of what Christmas is supposed to be like, then you absolutely _have_ to watch it." AJ explained.

"If you say so." Undyne said with a shrug.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to enjoy it, but I'll watch anyway." Mettaton commented.

"I can't wait to watch it!" Asgore said with a cheerful smile. "It sounds like it will be very enjoyable."

"Well, it is supposed to be a family movie, for a family focused holiday. And, well, we got our massive, dysfunctional family all here. That counts, right?" AJ said jokingly, getting some laughs from everyone.

"I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE AS WELL! IS THERE ANY CHANCE THAT SANTA CLAUS WILL BE IN IT?" Papyrus asked.

"Well, what would be the fun in telling you that?" The teen responded with a smirk.

The tall skeleton gasped excitedly. "DID YOU HEAR THAT, SANS!? I THINK SANTA MIGHT BE IN THIS MOVIE!"

"I sure hope so, Pap." Sans said with a smile.

"Well we will certainly start as soon as we are finished eating." Toriel said.

"Gaaaah! I can barely wait!" Frisk whispered excitedly and glanced at her fellow human.

AJ smiled back at her. "Hey, you enjoying this so far?" He asked.

"Yeah! Having everyone here is great, and all the lights are super pretty, and the music is just perfect! I had no idea Christmas could be like this!" The child answered happily.

"Great!" He whispered back with a nod. "I'm really glad you're having fun."

Eventually everyone had finished their food and they were ready to start the movie. The couch was a very limited space, so they pulled in what chairs they could from the dining room. Undyne and Alphys were sharing the right side of the couch, Sans had the left, and Frisk was sitting in the middle, with some room for AJ next to her. Mettaton and the two boss monsters placed their chairs around the couch.

The teen stood in front of the TV, looking at all the friends and family he had, and he couldn't help but smile brightly and blush in embarrassment since everyone was staring at him. "Well, I hope you all have enjoyed this so far, our first Christmas Eve together." He spoke. "And I hope that by the end of this movie, and our morning tomorrow, that you enjoy and understand Christmas. If not this time, then maybe the next time, or even the one after that."

Coming from the self-proclaimed realist, sans thought that sounded odd. "Well, you sound awful confident."

The skeleton was surprised to see the boy turn to him with this passionate and confident smile, and a strange green sparkle in his eyes. "Yes, I am." AJ responded. He paused for a moment before holding up the disc around his finger. "Without further ado, here's Christmas!"

And with that, they began a journey. By the time that journey was over, it was late and everyone was tired. They decided to do exactly what they had talked about doing, having a big sleepover there. Once all the lights were turned off, everyone began finding a nice place to sleep, mostly on the floor.

"That was actually a really nice movie, bud." Sans said as he laid down on the floor.

"IT SURE WAS! AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL MOVIE! I ENJOYED EVERY MOMENT OF IT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY MET SANTA!" Papyrus said before turning a bit more serious. "MY ONLY COMPLAINT, IS THAT I WISH IT HAD SOME MORE PUZZLES IN IT. BUT, I DO NOT BELIEVE THE THEME OF CHRISTMAS IS PUZZLES, SO I WILL LET IT SLIDE."

"Yeah, it actually was pretty nice. Glad there was actually an intense scene in it." Undyne commented.

"It was wonderful!" Asgore said with his usual smile. "I do believe I understand Christmas much better now!"

"It was real nice. I liked getting to see how the train worked, though I'm not so sure that a normal train would have made it across that lake." Alphys commented as she and Undyne went over to a corner of the living room.

"WELL IT WAS OBVIOUSLY A MAGIC TRAIN." Papyrus pointed out.

"It sure was." Frisk said before letting out a yawn.

"It was a wonderful story." Toriel said.

"Well I'm glad you all enjoyed it." AJ said before yawning as well.

Asgore chuckled. "It seems we really are all tired."

"That's for sure." Sans agreed. "Goodnight Tori, Frisk, AJ, Papy."

"Goodnight sans." The older human responded. "Goodnight Asgore and Toriel."

"Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Papyrus." Frisk said with a smile.

"Goodnight, punks!" Undyne said with her usual grin.

"Goodnight, my children." Toriel said to the humans on the couch before trying to fall asleep in her chair. "Goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight guys." Alphys said before chuckling at the sight of Mettaton sitting against a wall and going into power saving mode. "Night, Mettaton."

"Goodnight, everyone." Asgore said.

AJ looked down at the adorable kid sitting in his lap. "Goodnight, sis." He said before wrapping arms around them and closing his eyes.

"Goodnight, AJ." She responded before closing her eyes as well.

And with that, everyone went to sleep.

…

…

…

"Hot, hot, hot chocolate." Undyne whispered before chuckling, and the quiet of the dark room was suddenly shattered by everyone laughing out loud.

* * *

Frisk was not the kid that woke up first in the house and then got everyone up to open presents. And yet, somehow, the kid was the first to wake up, before everyone else. She slowly opened her tired eyes, only to have them suddenly shoot open when she saw the window. "What!?" She whispered in shock. Her movement caused her fellow human to stir. "AJ! It's snowing!"

"W-What?" He said groggily, before looking up at the window and suddenly waking up. "That's… impossible?" He commented in shock as he stared at the window as well.

It was snowing, and not just lightly. Large snowflakes were slowly falling to the ground, passing their window which was quite fogged up. Frisk hopped to a stand and ran over to look out the window better, and the teen slowly got up to do the same. Their waking caused everyone else to start to stir, and the boy decided to unlock and open the front door to get a better look. It had apparently snowed quite a bit last night, because every lawn, car, and house in sight had a decent layer of snow on it.

"Um… the snow's supposed to be in the mountains… not down here." AJ pointed out as he stared out at the snowfall. The lack of wind and vehicles made it almost silent in the early morning, which made the scene even more beautiful.

"It's a Christmas miracle!" The younger human exclaimed with a huge grin on her face.

The monsters were soon up and looking out at the snow as well, though they were much less astonished compared to the humans.

"Strange, I don't recall this being in the weather forecast…" Alphys noted.

"Let's open our presents now, while it's still snowing!" Frisk requested before rushing over to the Christmas tree.

"Wait, don't you want to go out and play in the snow first?" Toriel asked the girl.

"Even if it stops snowing, the snow will still be there! I wanna open presents while you can still see it through the window!" The child explained.

"Ah, I see, you want to 'full Christmas experience'." AJ realized, getting a nod in response from Frisk. "Fair enough then. Let's open some presents!"

The Christmas lights and music were put back into full swing as the full party gathered around the Christmas tree. "This one's for you." Sans said as he handed a present to Undyne. "This one's yours. This one's got your name on it."

"Oh! My name's on this one!" Frisk noted and grabbed a present of her own.

"Oh? One for me?" Mettaton said with a slightly surprised tone as they reached over and took a present. "Ah. Papyrus." He saw the other name on it and glanced at the skeleton that he knew was a longtime fan of his show.

Monsters and humans passed around their presents until everyone was standing or sitting next to a pile of presents that were all for them. At first they tried to just go one at a time, but then they got impatient and pretty soon there was wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows everywhere.

Frisk looked over a pretty red sweater that had a pink circle in the center of it and a large red heart shape inside that pink circle. "Thank you!" She said to Toriel, who had left the room momentarily only to come back wearing the antlers they had bought at the store.

"Papyrus, seriously?" Undyne asked after opening one of her boxes and finding a bone inside it.

"WELL OF COURSE!" The tall skeleton responded.

AJ opened up a box and found a few red lollipops inside. "Oh! Thank you, Asgore!" He said, slightly surprised that the king had known that he liked these.

"Are these… safety glasses?" Alphys asked the fashionable robot.

Mettaton shrugged and looked away. "Well you broke your last set and had kept working anyway, I figured I should fix that." He explained before noticing the lizard tearing up and smiling up at him. "What? It's a simple safety procedure, I shouldn't have even needed to buy them for you."

Alphys' smile didn't falter. "Thank you, Mettaton."

Toriel opened one of her presents and found a joke book inside. "Oh dear!" She laughed at the thought of the fun she would have with this. "Thank you, sans."

Papyrus noticed the present that his brother was opening. "I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NEED THAT ONE, SANS."

This got the short skeleton curious as he removed the wrapping from the box. When he finally opened it up fully, he saw a book inside, titled 'How To Stop Being Lazy, For Dummies'. "Oh really now?" Sans asked with a smirk as he heard his brother laughing behind him. "Why don't you open that one there, Pap?" He asked, pointing to a specific present.

The Great Papyrus did as requested and curiously unwrapped the box, only to be met with a book with a familiar title. 'How To Be Lazy, For Dummies.' Sans started laughing, and after a few moments, Papyrus was too.

Frisk opened a present for her that was from AJ, and she was excited to see what was inside. She was surprised when she noticed cloth inside. "Wait, you got me clothes too?" She asked, and her fellow human glanced at her before grinning in anticipation. She pulled up the black T-Shirt and saw text on the front 'I'm Not Short, I'm Fun Sized!' She burst out laughing, and her reaction got the boy laughing as well.

"I saw that shirt and knew I just _had_ to get it for you!" He explained with a laugh.

The next present the child opened was from Papyrus, and in it she found a red-orange scarf. "I FIGURED YOU SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO MATCH WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" The Papyrus explained.

"Thank you!" Frisk responded. "I'm getting so many clothes today!" She noted happily and smothered herself with all the clothes she's gotten, making herself a bundle of warm.

"Oh! You got me one too!" AJ realized when he opened another present. "Yes! Scarf buddies!" He said dramatically as he wrapped the scarf around his neck.

"OF COURSE! I WANTED BOTH HUMANS TO BE ABLE TO MATCH THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" The skeleton exclaimed in response.

"Alright, so… since there aren't that many unopened presents left, I figured we'd get to this one, bud." Sans spoke up, pulling a familiar present that he'd been hiding in his pile and looking at the older human. "So, can we open this?"

The teen sighed. "Yeah, go ahead."

"What's wrong?" Alphys asked.

"Yes, what is wrong, my child?" Toriel asked, concerned.

AJ let out a sigh. "Well, you see, I'm absolutely terrible at thinking of presents to get people. Besides the shirt for Frisk, I pretty much couldn't think of anything good, and if I did it was something obvious, like joke books, or a puzzle book for Papyrus, and I knew someone else would get that stuff, so there was no point. Despite that, I _still_ wanted to get a present for everyone, because I knew I'd feel bad if I didn't. And so I just…"

"You got… candles?" Sans said after opening the box and seeing what was inside.

"It's stupid, but it's all I could come up with." The boy mumbled as he stared at the ground.

"You should not feel that way, my child." Toriel spoke up. "We do not care what gifts we are given, all that matters is that you showed that you care."

"Except I don't feel that way." He responded. "I want to actually get a good present, but I just _can't._ "

"Then there's no point in getting upset about it." Sans responded. "Bud, believe it or not, I actually sometimes _don't_ want the house smelling like spaghetti all the time."

"Sometimes things happen in the lab, and the resulting smell is… bad, to say the least." Alphys added.

"That's for sure!" Undyne agreed.

"Walking around in a house that smells nice is always pleasant." Asgore added. "Do you think these candles smell good?"

"Well, yeah. That's why I bought them." The boy answered.

"Then they will do exactly what they are supposed to do, and they'll matter when they count. That's what matters." The king finished.

Frisk got in AJ's face. "If you were worried about them not liking your gift, you don't have to worry now! They all clearly like it, and they'll definitely like it when they light one! Don't worry, okay? They all like your gift." She said comfortingly.

"I know…" He admitted hesitantly. "I'm the only one that doesn't at this point."

"US SKELETONS CAN DEFINITELY SMELL, SO DO NOT WORRY, HUMAN, WE WILL ENJOY THESE CANDLES!" Papyrus said.

"Just my advice, AJ, quit comparing this to what other people might give for gifts." Sans suggested. "You gave you friends a very useful gift, and isn't that a good thing?"

The teen smiled lightly. "I knew you guys would be like this. Thank you, really."

"NO PROBLEM, HUMAN!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"I would be surprised if you _weren't_ expecting us to help you after all the time you've spent with monsters." Alphys commented with a smile.

Not much longer and everyone had opened every last present they had been given, and everyone was in a very good mood. Their first ever Christmas, and the monsters were pretty happy with it, and liked the idea of doing this again.

The group was getting ready to split up and head out, taking all their gifts with them. They could see that more people were up and moving by this point and many people were having snowball fights right about now, and they decided they'd actually like to do the same.

"Hey, Frisk?" AJ stopped his fellow human before they could walk outside.

"Yeah?"

"So now that all the real Christmasy stuff is over… did you like it all? Did you have a good time?" He asked her.

She smiled in response. "Best. Christmas. EVER!" She shouted.

He chuckled. "Good." And that was all he needed to hear. This entire Christmas was for her after all.

* * *

 **MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

 **Honestly, now that it's all said and done, I wish I could have done more.**

 **BUT GOD DAMN I stayed up till 5 in the morning to finish this and get it out when I woke up on Christmas for you guys! Time is just not a thing I have today! Though part of the 'more' that I wanted to do was have their reactions to the whole movie, but then I'd be here for days, and that's also just kind of a dumb idea in general.**

 **I also wish I better at characters, but alas, I'm not.**

 **Well, regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this, and I hope you have a very, very good day.**

 **Oh boy, I have to totally change themes for these next chapters… Well… here we go. See you all next week.**


	15. The Calm One

**It's finally time. After two months of thought, and MANY months of waiting, writing this series and daydreaming about the time I would reach this point, it's finally time.**

 **After nearly a year, it's time for the "Soul Magic AU" to truly begin!**

 **Side note: Wrote this chapter months ago, so it might not be as good as it would be if I had written it this week.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.15

* * *

He opened his eyes and found himself standing before a familiar wooden bridge. Papyrus and Sans smiled at him from the other side. The taller skeleton was bantering, but he couldn't hear him. In fact, he could barely hear anything, everything was muffled. He looked around in confusion and couldn't find Frisk or anyone else besides the monsters in front of him. Suddenly, the flames, spikes, spears, and spiked spheres appeared and activated.

He knew he was supposed to cross, but he didn't know how he would do so without getting hurt. He stood and stared for a long time, first trying to figure out if there were any safe points, and then figure out the total pattern to the gauntlet of deadly terror. He felt light winds slowly rotating around him as his patience rewarded him. He knew how to get through now.

The winds swirling around him grew and the snow at his feet became caught in the swirl. Light snow danced around him as he walked forward calmly. He walked past the swinging axe before stopping. He observed the spears and spikes for a few moments before smiling. He danced around the sharp points in the same way that the snow danced around him. A strange trail of teal sparkles was left behind the boy as he continued forward.

When he reached the end of the bridge, the skeletons gave him congratulatory smiles before noticing the winds around him. They backed up as the winds grew and picked up more snow around him, quickly engulfing the boy in swirling snow. He closed his eyes and felt the snow completely embrace him before suddenly collapsing into one point on his chest and vanishing. The boy fell onto his knees and slowly opened his teal colored eyes. There his soul was, floating in his hands, but the snow had turned it light blue.

And then he woke up.

He slowly opened his eyes with a confused look before looking around him. He picked up his phone from off the floor and unplugged it from its charger. Thankfully, he didn't wake up too early. In fact he had woken up just a few minutes before Frisk usually wakes up. He set his phone next to him on his bed while he revealed his soul to himself. It was the same light green that he was used to, and it didn't feel different to him at all. 'That was a weird dream… I've had weirder, but still.'

It didn't take long for Frisk to wake up and notice that he was awake. "Oh! You're awake!" She noticed before getting up from her bed and stretching.

"Yeah… I had a weird dream just now." AJ said after a moment.

"What was it?" She asked.

"I had a dream where I had to go through that 'gauntlet of deadly terror' right before Snowdin, but it felt really… real. And at the end of it, all this snow swirled around me and turned my soul teal somehow."

"Wait, isn't that the color for…" The girl tried to remember what it was.

"Patience, right?" The teen guessed.

"Yeah! That was it!" She realized. "That light blue soul! Wait, what's your soul now?"

His soul appeared over his chest. "Same as always. I'm not all that surprised that I had a dream where my soul was a different color but… it just felt off to me. I've never had such a real dream before that I can remember."

"Huh. That would have been really weird if your soul had actually changed color." The girl commented.

He chuckled. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure Alphys said that can't happen anyway. Then again, it did." He remembered before standing up and stretching as well. "Well, weird dreams aside, time for food." He said before heading out the door.

* * *

They enjoyed another less-than-healthy breakfast from Goat Mom before sitting down to play a quick game against each other before Frisk would go with Toriel to school. Their fun was interrupted though when the teen's phone started playing the Mew Mew theme song. He thought the anime was incredibly cringy, and he didn't find many things cringy, but the theme song was still pretty awesome in his opinion. It was actually quite dramatic and just the opposite of the anime. He pulled out his phone and answered. "What's up, Alphys?"

"AJ, another human has gained magic!" The lizard said, straight to the point.

"W-Wait, what!?" He asked, absolutely shocked.

"I was called in the middle of the night by some humans who told me that someone had called _that_ number when they started showing signs of magic abilities. It was so early in the morning though, so I've been holding off telling you till now. B-But time's up! You need to be at that dojo within an hour!" Alphys requested.

"Should Frisk go with me?" The older human asked.

"I don't know… The news people are going to be there to watch you and the new mage, so you might want to keep her out of that. That's your choice though." The monster answered.

"Yeah, you're right." He agreed.

"What's going on?" Frisk asked, concerned.

"Someone didn't get the memo and decided to gain magic a week earlier than Alphys thought they would." The boy answered. "Alright, I'll be there, Alphys." He said before hanging up. "Toriel!"

The goat monster ran into the living room. "Yes?"

"You need to drive me to the dojo."

Her eyes widened at that. "Why? Did a human-"

"Yes, someone has gained magic abilities." He answered before she could finish. "So I need to get there and mentally prepare myself for this."

"A-Alright. I will get ready then." Toriel said before heading up to her room.

"So I'm going to be there too, right?" The younger human asked.

"I'd rather you not. The media's gonna be there." He answered.

"I don't care." She said immediately.

"I knew you were gonna say that!" He commented. "Fine, whatever."

"Good, then let's go get ready!"

Toriel drove them to a nearly empty square parking lot in the middle of the commercial district of the town. One of the many small single story buildings here was an empty dojo that used to be used for Taekwondo training. It had been for sale for quite awhile, and the older human figured this would be a good place for teaching magic control. The others agreed, so they bought the place. Today, it was finally gonna be used.

The only vehicles here besides theirs were the news vans, and the camera crews were quick to swarm the humans and monster. Green walls stopped them before they got too close and they stepped back as the older human glared at them all.

"ALRIGHT!" He shouted to get them to shut up. "Here's how this is going to work! When the new mage gets here, you're going to leave them alone! You are _going_ to give them space! Then, when they come in and we help them with their magic, you are all going to _stay out of the way_. If anyone here gets in the way, I will _kick you all out_! GOT IT!?" There were only a few nods in the crowd. This didn't fill him with confidence. "Whatever…" He grumbled quietly before removing the walls and walking past them all, Frisk following.

"I will just wait out here." Toriel said as they walked away. There were a lot of humans here and she thought if might be best to stay out of their way, even though she really wanted to watch her children help someone. She knows she would be filled with pride if she saw that. Still though, she's filled with pride just knowing that they are willing to do this at all.

AJ walked into the middle of the dojo and just laid down on the floor. Frisk sat down beside him and looked around, occasionally looking at him. He looked like he was contemplating life.

'So… this is the beginning. Someone's going to come here, and I'm going to help them control their magic. They're no doubt going to be feared and hated just as I am for having magic. Eventually more people are going to come here, and Frisk and I will have to teach them as well. We can't work around the clock though, we need breaks. Meanwhile, people will be panicking as they aren't being taught how to control their magic. …We should get paid to do this when it starts getting to be a big thing.

WAIT! I KNOW! When it gets too out of hand, I can teach people over the internet! Oh god, I don't want to do that, I'm shy… I don't want to have to talk to a massive amount of people over the internet while I look like an idiot…' He whined out loud, causing the girl next to him to give him a bit of a worried look.

"Are you okay?" She asked. He did not respond.

'Maybe there won't be a large amount of people who get magic? Maybe it will be manageable… But magic is going to spread across the whole world! PEOPLE ARE GONNA HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT ON THEIR OWN RATHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT. Oh, and I'm ignoring the fact that people are going to abuse their magic no matter how much I tell them not to. That'll be wonderful. There's gonna have to be a police force of people who can use magic just to counter it.'

The boy continued to think, and think, and think for the next half hour. He thought about things he had thought of before, he thought about things he hadn't thought of before, he thought of things totally off topic before getting back onto it. Early on he realized he should stop worrying about the future, which he finds himself doing more likely than he'd like to admit, and focused on what he was going to need to do here, in this dojo.

* * *

Eventually, someone from the annoying crews walked in from outside. "I think they're here." They spoke up.

Everyone in the room turned to the person. "Are you sure?" AJ asked, holding his head up to look at them.

The person looked back out the door for a few seconds before looking back at them. "Someone got out and is walking this way."

The teen's eyes widened before he shot up from his spot on the floor and ran outside. He saw the news crews running towards some figure in the distance. He raised his hand up to them and focused on the movement of his soul energy. His extended hand turned green and glowed as a large green wall appeared to block the crew from rushing the person. He was then able to walk past the crews and see who he had spared from the media.

Alphys had texted him about the person who had gained magic, and honestly, this guy didn't look fifteen. He wore a white t-shirt with light blue stripes, black and white sneakers, and standard blue jeans. Their skin wasn't black, but was very tanned, their black hair was cut incredibly short, and their eyes were a dark brown. He was shorter than what he figured a 15 year old would be. Certainly taller than Frisk, but not that close to his height at all. The kid looked up at him and looked mostly calm.

"Hey there." AJ greeted with a friendly smile. He extended his hand out calmly and the kid took his hand without too much hesitation.

"Hi." They responded with a bit of a smile.

"What's your name?"

The kid glanced at the cameras behind the tall teen for a moment. "Josh." They answered.

"Alright. Josh. Josh. I'll try my best to remember that, but you'll have to forgive me if I do forget, cause my memory with names can be pretty bad sometimes." AJ said with a chuckle, bringing out a chuckle from the new mage. "Oh, call me AJ, please." He requested, and the boy nodded.

"Yeah, I've heard of you." Josh commented. "Just about everyone's heard of you, really."

The teen looked up and noticed the new car that wasn't there before. He could see two people in the front seat, and neither of them looked like they were going to come out. 'Whoever is in there is either not very supportive of him, or just doesn't want to deal with the news people. Can't blame them if it's the latter.' "Let's get inside." He requested.

They pushed past the news crews and stepped inside the dojo. The kid, Josh, admired the room they were in for a moment. "Hi! I'm Frisk!" The girl greeted, walking up to shake hands with the boy.

"Hi, Frisk. Call me Josh."

"Hey uh, Josh? I have some questions for you before we start, and I want you to be honest with me, okay?" The teen requested, and the boy nodded. "Are you scared?"

Josh shrugged in admittance. "Yeah, a little bit. I'm trying my best not to be though."

AJ smiled a bit before asking the next question. "What do you think of us?" He asked, gesturing to himself and Frisk.

The kid scratched the back of his head. "Uh… what do I say? I've heard of you both? You both seem nice. You're… not like what people have said about you, at least so far." He listed off whatever came to his mind.

"Fair enough. What do you think of monsters?" The oldest of the three asked.

"Well… they don't seem bad." The kid answered. "They haven't done anything wrong that I've seen. I really don't get why some people are so mean to them."

AJ smiled. "Good! Glad you think that. Anyway, let's get to work. Sit down with me. It's time to begin a journey of learning for the whole human race."

"Okay, so I had felt something moving through me." Josh started. "It had moved up my arm and my hand had turned like, light blue."

"I'm sure that was a fun experience." AJ commented jokingly, getting a hesitant chuckle from the kid. "You read those posts on the internet about magic right?" He asked, getting a nod. "Alright so what you felt moving was, of course, your Soul Energy. From our experience, we think your soul tries to show you what you can do with your new power that humans once had. It's best to learn to control it though, and once you do learn how to control it, your soul will likely switch to teaching you what you can do through dreams. I can't guarantee that that's what will happen, but it's what happened for me and Frisk.

Anyway, what we're going to do today is teach you how to control it. First thing you're gonna want to do, is try to ignore the people all around us." The news crews were stretched out along all the walls except the back one. "I wish you luck with that, because I sure won't be able to do it." He commented, getting another chuckle from Josh. "Okay, so, getting to the point. Close your eyes, and try to focus. Since you said your hand turned light blue, a shade that some call teal, so your Soul Trait is Patience. Maybe thinking of patience will help, I don't know.

 _Anyway_ , focus deep inside yourself and feel for your soul. It's inside you, right in your chest, just below the surface. What you want to do is find it and pull energy out of it. You've felt it move in you before, so you might be a bit more familiar with it." The kid had his eyes closed and he seemed to be trying to focus. Thankfully, the media people had the decency to keep quiet. "Tell me when you've found your soul, first."

"… I found it." Josh spoke up. He found it weird how he somehow knew that was his soul. Sure, it was his soul, but he had little idea what he was doing besides what the teen told him to do.

"Good. Now, I want you to practice pulling on it for a bit." AJ requested. "You should be able to pull that energy right out of it. When you do, let go of it and let it go back into your soul."

"This… feels weird." The kid commented after a time.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

The kid continued to do as he was told. It was weird, feeling something in his chest moving around. It didn't feel wrong though, it just felt odd. He could tell that he was able to consciously pull on the energy, and it moved willingly with his thoughts if he focused enough. When he let go of it with the want for it to go back to his soul, it did just that. As he worked with it over the course of many quiet minutes, he started to get used to this. He was starting to make it flow more and more, he could pull more and more energy, and it was strangely starting to feel normal.

"How are you doing? Are you okay?" AJ asked after a long time.

"Yeah… I…" He opened his eyes for the first time in half an hour and stared at him. "I'm fine. That stuff is moving when I want it to. It… doesn't feel so weird to do it anymore." He noted. His look was a mix of confusion and surprise, but you could see the wonder in his eyes.

"Good." The teen said with a smile. "Do you think you could move on a bit?"

"What would I move on to?" Josh asked.

"Well, now that you're a bit more used to moving the energy that your soul is creating… I think you should try moving it around your body." The older human said. "Try moving the energy all around your body, through your arms, down your legs, just move it around all you want. Take your time though. Just stay relaxed and try to get used to this."

Doing this was taking a lot more focus for the kid. Feeling and sensing the energy move around throughout his body soon became a normal feeling as well though. He spent another half hour moving the energy of his soul around in his body. It flowed through his arms and legs, it swirled around his chest and his stomach area, and strangely enough, it was starting to feel calming to do it. He actually really was forgetting about the camera crews, and he was just lost in his own thoughts as he focused his entire mind on making the energy move. He was even starting to split the energy and make it move in multiple directions.

"You know, this kind of feels good." Josh commented without opening his eyes.

"Heh, you haven't done the most calming thing yet." AJ pointed out, causing the kid to open his eyes.

"What else is there?" He asked.

The (older) teen held up his hand in front of him. "Well, what you're going to do next, is take energy from your soul. Then, you move it around, like you've been doing, and send it up your arm and to your hand. Fill your whole hand with soul energy and just keep building it up until…" His hand was covered in green flame. "…you do that."

The kid looked concerned. "I'm going to set my hand on fire?" He asked. "Actually, wait, I've heard people say you have fire magic!"

AJ rolled his eyes. "This isn't fire magic. In fact, this isn't much of a flame." He touched his other hand with his fiery one, then he gripped his shirt, and then he touched the floor, nothing ignited. "This is the last thing you need to learn. It's the most basic form of soul magic there is, and once you learn to do that, you should have total control." He explained.

"Really?" Josh asked, surprised. "I thought this was going to take… weeks or something!"

"Well over weeks you'll certainly get better with your soul magic, but I'm not teaching you how to use your magic." The taller one countered. "I put a lot of thought into this you know. I figure I teach you how to pull out your soul energy, I teach you how to control it, and then I show you a simple way to use it without endangering anything around you. After that, you'll have control, and then you'll learn what actual soul magic you can do with that soul trait of yours on your own." The kid looked a bit worried. "Look, this is just how it's going to be. I can't hold your hand the whole time, you and everyone else are just gonna have to figure out what magic you can do. Besides, it's what we've had to do, and it really doesn't take that long."

"Mhm." Frisk hummed in agreement.

Josh knew that he would just have to accept that, so he tried to just focus on what he was told to do. His soul let out energy, and he willed it to move up his right hand. It was a bit difficult at first to get more energy to move where there already was soul energy, but he eventually started to figure it out. He was able to start condensing his soul energy into his hand, more and more. He felt it wanting to 'activate', it wanted to do something. It took him time, but he started to figure out how to activate the energy that he had built up. Slowly but surely his hand started to glow with a light blue energy. Eventually, he got it, and he opened his eyes. The skin of his hand was staying its color, but it was covered in a teal flame with a small purple flame in the center. "Whoa…" He said, eyes filled with wonder.

"Whoa! Awesome!" Frisk exclaimed.

"You did it! Nice!" AJ congratulated. The people around them with cameras that weren't recording were quick to take pictures of this.

This was a special occasion after all, the first human that has _never_ been in the Underground to use soul magic.

"This… feels really really nice." Josh said after a moment, staring at the flames that reflected off his eyes.

The older teen chuckled in amusement. "Well, there you go! You get how to activate your soul energy now!" The two mages sat there, each with one of their hands covered in a colored flame.

"Do you want to feel it?" Josh asked with an enthusiastic smile.

AJ wasn't about to turn down the kid while he was so happy and excited to show his new ability to him. "Sure." He answered before reaching out to his hand. Upon touching the kid's hand, he was not met with the pleasant warmth of his own soul flame or the strengthening light warmth of Frisk's soul flame. Instead, this light blue energy in the shape of fire was actually quite cold. "Whoa, that's different. I can hardly call that a flame, what the heck?"

"What?" Josh asked, confused by his reaction.

"Yours feels cold, I just wasn't expecting that." AJ explained.

"Is it not supposed to be?" The kid asked.

"I'm pretty sure it's fine. It's just that for Frisk and I the flames are kind of warm, but I guess that's not the case for patience." The taller mage figured.

"Can I feel yours then?" The younger teen asked.

"Sure." He held out his flaming hand and the kid took it.

His eyes widened a bit. "Oh! That is warm!" He noted before pulling his hand back. "I'll take what I got though. It'll be nice for a hot day."

"Heh. Yeah, you'll enjoy that during summer." AJ agreed. "You might wanna keep practicing that for a bit though."

"Oh, right." He nodded before trying the flame again, and getting it pretty quickly compared to last time.

"Yeah, cause this is basically the magic exercise that you'll repeatedly do to get better and better at controlling your soul energy." The older one explained. "So it'd be a good idea to get used to doing that now while you can."

"While I can?" Josh asked.

"Hey, I have a life too you know!" AJ countered jokingly. "As soon as we feel like you can handle your magic, I'm going home." He commented. He went quiet after that and watched as the young new mage practiced with his soul flame over and over again.

Eventually the two teens were satisfied and they both stood up to leave. "Hey, I'm pretty sure this thing with you being a new mage is gonna get you a lot of attention for awhile, so… If you ever need a place to flee to for safety, for any reason, I'm sure Toriel will be totally fine with you coming over." AJ said.

Josh nodded. "Thank you for the offer, and thank you very much for helping me with this." He held out his hand and AJ couldn't help but look impressed.

He shook the boy's hand. "You're welcome."

* * *

 **Since the year's about to end, I would like to say it one last time for this year… Thank you for reading, thank you for following and favoriting, thank you for the wonderful and kind reviews that encouraged me to keep going from chapter one of ProtectorTale to now. You guys have made this series(which I've apparently been writing for just a few months short of a year) so much more enjoyable to write!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed as well.**

 **Happy New Year!**

 **(BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH I'VE BEEN WRITING THIS SINCE LATE FEBRUARY!? IF FEELS LIKE IT'S ONLY BEEN LIKE FOUR MONTHS! This has been a much longer journey than I thought...)**


	16. A Changing World

**Don't worry, the focus on the au won't last forever. We'll have some more undertale'y stuff eventually. Just get used to seeing its effects more often is all.**

 **Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.16

* * *

Over the course of just three days one could see the effects of the news, and the live feeds, and the official news reports. Lots of renewed interest in magic…

"So, wait, how strong can mages make themselves again?"

"Do we have any idea what mages with other traits will be able to do?"

Just about every talk show started off with something along the lines of "So, it's official, the first new human to become a mage has appeared in the city of Onyx, California. What does this mean for the future of humanity as a whole?"

Just a quick scroll through any social media would show people getting even more excited…

"Now I really can't wait to get magic powers! I hope I get purple! It's my fav color! :3"

"Pretty sure I'm gonna get integrity. Hope it has cool stuff."

"I hope I get kindness! I wanna help people!"

"Getting to heal people would really help me do my job as a doctor."

"I don't care what I get as long as it's cool!"

But the amount of people expressing concern was rising as well, to the point where you would actually notice them.

"So when do the mage uprisings start?"

"So what's the police gonna do about criminals using magic? Just their strength makes it easy for them to murder whenever they wish."

"I hope those ones with green magic don't render my PhD invalid."

"Great, with all their "special abilities" it's going to be more than just immigrants stealing our jobs."

"If those stupid monsters hadn't come along, everything would have been fine!"

The entire world was panicking, and while people will complain about jobs, criminals, or uprisings, the reason for the panic could be summed up into one single thing…

The world was changing, and people were actually getting a warning about it. People are always afraid of change, and this new mage is a very clear sign that the world is starting to really change. To make it even more terrifying for them, they don't know how the world is going to change, and they don't know how to stop it.

* * *

"Ever since you've become a mage I have been waiting for my freedom to come to an end as Alphys starts getting swamped with calls and I have to start teaching an endless stream of people how to control their magic. Instead it's been three days and she hasn't gotten a single call yet. Do you have _any_ idea how come you gained magic a week before Alphys said you all would?" AJ asked through a text.

"Sorry, no." Josh answered back.

"No one else in your family is showing any signs of magic?" The older teen asked.

"Nope."

"Darn it! I was hoping it might a bloodline thing." The kind one explained.

"You thought there was a hidden gene in my family that would make us become mages sooner than normal?" Josh asked.

"Well gee, when you put it like that it sounds stupid… :( I'm grasping for straws here, okay? We don't know enough about magic to tell how all this stuff works and I was hoping for a sign!" AJ whined.

"Oh! I just remembered what I was gonna ask! How're you doing?" AJ asked.

It took a moment for the younger boy to answer. "I'll be honest, I don't know how you dealt with the cameras following you around." Josh answered.

"I don't know either. Thankfully they relaxed after a week or two. Though in my opinion they only relaxed after I threatened them multiple times. They try to be more… 'normal' now. They still annoy me every time they approach me, even if there is a good reason for them to ask me stuff." AJ said.

"If there is a positive to this it's that one crew that follows me 'stealthily'. They're pretty fun to watch." Josh commented.

"OH YEAH, THOSE GUYS! Always hiding behind bushes and stuff! You'd think they'd pick clothing harder to see, like, oh I don't know, NOT red and white? XD"

"The red and blue hair is not helping them either, but you've got to admire their unique way to get information." Josh pointed out, and the older human laughed after reading that.

"So how's the magic training going?" AJ asked after a moment.

"Better than I expected. That 'Soul Flame' as you called it really has helped with controlling the magic energy. I just had it flow through my arm right now and I can barely feel it anymore. You weren't kidding when you said it doesn't take that long." The younger boy answered.

"Good! I was honestly worried I was gonna be totally wrong when I said that and you were gonna take a really long time to get used to it. So, do you think you've gotten used to your own special abilities?" The kind soul responded.

"I've gotten to the point where I can control them now." Josh answered.

"Don't suppose you could come over so I can finally see them?" AJ asked.

"Actually I was about to ask, would now be a good time? I'm pretty sure it's about time for the news crews to come bother us again." The patient soul said.

"Toriel said its fine." The older teen answered a minute later.

"Alright then. I'll be there shortly." Josh said.

The older teen came stomping down the stairs and quickly rounded the corner into the living room.

"It took you that long to get your phone?" Frisk asked jokingly.

He smirked before answering. "No, I was texting someone. Guess who's on their way here right now?" He asked as he sat down on the couch next to her.

"Sans?" The girl guessed.

"Nope! Josh!" He said, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Really!? Is he finally ready to show his soul magic!?" She asked excitedly.

"Yep!" The boy answered.

"Yay!" She cheered. "Did he tell you anything about his magic?" The child asked.

"Well from what he's said, I think he's like me in that he has more than one ability." AJ answered. "That's all I really know, though. I made sure he kept out any details unless he really needed my help, and I guess he didn't need it."

"Well yeah, isn't soul magic kinda easy?" Frisk asked before unpausing their game.

"Well it's been easy for _us_ , but we're two people. It could just as easily be hard for everyone else. Though now I guess its three people who have it easy." The teen responded.

And so they continued enjoying their free time thanks to winter break, all the while excitedly waiting for their new friend to arrive. Their fun was interrupted by a text from Alphys, and it wasn't what they expected to get from her.

"So uh… guess who ducked into our place?" Along with that text was a picture of Undyne and Josh chatting in their kitchen. The human looked surprisingly calm with the fish woman in his face with her patented toothy grin. It looked like they were getting along though.

"What!?" Frisk exclaimed, shocked.

"No way!" AJ exclaimed in disbelief.

"I was going to send Josh your way, but Undyne started talking with him, so I couldn't bring myself to. More importantly though, I promised two local scientists I would give them a close up look at what mages could do next time I had the chance, soooo… he won't be heading over to your place for awhile."

"Well hey, why don't we come over to you? I'm sure those guys would like to have as much info as possible, right?" The boy texted.

"I know I would if I were them! If you start walking now, I'll hold off on calling the scientists for a bit so you can get here in time." Alphys texted back.

"Alright. We'll be there." AJ sent back before turning to Frisk. "Alright, let's save and get ready. We're gonna do some more stuff for Alphys today."

"Cool!" Frisk exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, it sure is cold outside." He commented with a smirk, making her giggle.

The humans dressed for cold weather, as in they put on their cloaks, and set out for the lab.

* * *

Undyne wrapped an arm around the human's neck. "Yeah, those news people were total jerks to us too at first. They'll probably back off in a week or two. But you know what? I kinda like you, kid, so if they're ever being too much of a pain..." She closed one eye and grinned at him. "Just call me, and I'll scare em off for ya."

Josh calmly reached behind him and pulled the monster's arm off of him before turning to her with a smile. "Thanks for the offer, but it's probably best that you don't go scaring humans like that." He responded.

Undyne crossed her arms. "Pfft. You can't tell me what to do." She said simply, and there was a pause before she started laughing. "I'm just joking around, punk!" She said before giving him a hard slap on the back.

"She's totally going to do whatever she wants though." Alphys commented as she glanced out the window for a moment. "It's probably been long enough. I'm gonna call them now." She said before pulling out her phone.

The human stared at Alphys for a moment. "Undyne, do you mind if I ask something?" He asked.

"Nope! Go right ahead!" Undyne answered before suddenly getting in his face. "Unless you're gonna say something about Alphys, then you might wanna shut your mouth."

"No, don't worry. I'm not going to insult anyone." He responded, hoping to pacify the scary fish lady. "I wanted to know why you're being so friendly with me. Since you're a guard, I figured you would be more suspicious of me."

"Well I was when I first heard about ya." Undyne started, her smile being replaced with a solemn frown. "Thing is, since I'm a guard, I have to deal with a lot of shi- a lot of crumby humans. Pretty much the only humans I ever deal with are the ones who don't bother hiding how much they hate us. The only humans I deal with personally that don't hate us are Frisk and AJ. Then Alphys sees you running from the cameras and pulls you in here, and it turns out you actually don't hate us." She smiled again. "You're so calm that you're kinda boring and no fun to mess with, but other than that, you don't seem so bad. It's just a breath of fresh air is all."

Josh smiled a bit. "Well I'm glad you feel that way."

"But don't go thinking I trust you like I trust those other punks. I'm still ready if you try to betray us." She pointed out.

He nodded in understanding. "I hope you know, Undyne, there are a lot of good humans out there too." He pointed out.

The Captain of The Royal Guard crossed her arms and frowned. "If there are, I sure haven't seen them."

"That's the problem." Alphys spoke up. "I see a lot of nice humans on the internet, but very few in person. It's like you said, Undyne, the ones that approach us are the rude ones, so it makes it seem like all humans are bad. I try not to let that get me down though, because I know the nicer humans are out there, they do exist." She said with a smile.

"We need to have some kind of big meet up of nice humans!" Undyne suggested suddenly.

"Like a convention? Well that sounds kind of fun, actually!" The local nerd said excitedly.

The three of them went back and forth with ideas for a while till there was a knock at the door. Undyne was quick to open it and greet the cloaked humans. "Hey, punks!"

"Heyo!" The boy greeted.

"Hi!" The girl greeted with a bright smile.

"Hi, guys." Alphys greeted as Frisk and AJ walked in.

"Hello!" Josh greeted with a wave.

"Oh yeah! Hey, Josh!" The oldest human greeted back. "So, you finally ready to show what you can do?"

The younger teen chuckled lightly. "I don't think I'm allowed to say no to that."

Undyne once again put Josh in basically a chokehold. "That's right, you're not! I want a new buddy to spar with! Fighting with Papyrus is fun and all, but it's so much more interesting to fight a human that's powered up with magic! NGAAAAAH!" She shouted passionately, and the poor boy next to her cringed slightly at the pain in his ears.

"I'm not really a fighter though." Josh pointed out.

"We'll see about that!" The fish monster responded. Before they knew it, Undyne was dragging the human over to the stairs leading into the basement.

"Undyne!? Wait!" Alphys requested in vain as she went to follow as fast her short legs would let her.

"Be gentle with the poor guy, will ya!?" AJ requested with a smirk as he and Frisk followed as well.

"Alright!" Undyne shouted before picking the younger boy up and planting him in the middle of the testing area. "Show us what you can do!"

Frisk gasped excitedly, and Alphys and AJ couldn't help but get excited as well.

"Alright, alright!" Josh said with an awkward smile as he righted himself. He wiped away his smile and took a breath to help him focus. He mentally pulled soul energy out of his soul and led it up his arm and into the fingers of his left hand. He extended it as his fingers turned a bright light blue and glowed as well. Small magical ropes about as thick as his fingers appeared from his fingertips and extended outward about three feet, floating in the air.

"Whoa!" Frisk gasped in awe.

"Whoa, cool!" AJ commented.

"Incredible… Can you control those strings yourself?" Alphys asked, going into scientist mode.

"Yeah, I can." Josh answered before waving his arm side to side a few times, causing the ropes to sway with him. They weren't very stiff, and actually waved through the air quite freely. After doing that a few times and giving the lizard a good chance to observe, he then held his arm still and focused a bit more. While his arm was still, the five magical teal ropes began moving around as if they had minds of their own. They coiled around things that weren't there and wiggled like worms. "I can move them with my mind, too."

Frisk giggled as she watched them wave around.

"Can you make the ropes longer?" Alphys asked.

He nodded. "Yes." He brought out more soul energy and had it flow to his glowing fingers and activated it, increasing the length of the ropes to the point where he could almost reach the others, despite standing almost ten feet away.

"Hmm…" The Royal Scientist hummed in thought as she looked around the lab and at the tables nearby. "Can you grab that toolbox over there using just magic and standing right where you are?" She asked.

"Sure." He answered with a nod. He turned his arm to his right, towards the table she had pointed to. His teal ropes/vines reached out and wrapped around the toolbox to make sure it was held tight. Then he turned back to Alphys and used more magic to extend them far enough to reach her. In the end it took more effort, but neither him nor Alphys had walked a step towards the item.

"Well if that doesn't have a ton of useful applications, I don't know what does!" Alphys exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm still not impressed yet!" Undyne shouted suddenly, jumping down in front of the boy in the striped shirt. "Come on, punk! Throw me!"

"Throw you?" Josh parroted.

"Yeah! Grab me with your vine things and throw me against that wall!" The fish ordered.

The boy squinted at her as he thought about the ridiculousness of this request for a moment. "…Okay…" He raised his arm towards her and moved his magical vines to wrap around her. Once he was sure he had a good grip on her with a few of them, he quickly spun around and flung her past him, all while unwrapping her from the vines.

The monster flew into the wall and slammed into it with a loud *THUD*. She slumped down for barely a second before suddenly jumping back up. "Now _that_ was AWESOME!" She shouted.

The three who were used to Undyne being Undyne laughed at this.

"What in the world is going on here!?" A new voice shouted angrily.

* * *

 **K so I just noticed that the next part has quite a bit of important info for the AU, so like last time, it's going to be its own chapter so it will be easier for me or anyone else to find the information later.**

 **Also it gives me an excuse to give you guys SOMETHING before it ends up being another three weeks without another post on this fic. Since I cut the chapter off, I'm already pretty far into what's now technically the next chapter, so I almost certainly won't take three weeks to complete it.**

 **As usual, I hope you enjoyed, and I do hope you have a great week!**

 **And for anyone in the future who is just reading through all this in one sitting like I would do, don't forget to follow and/or fav! And maybe leave a nice review if you're, like, feeling generous today or something.**


	17. Soul Magic 2

**This fanfic's intention has become twofold.**

 **It's an excuse for me to write more about these characters and what they go through on the surface. But it is also a full (at least as full as I can make it) exploration of my AU and the effects it would have on the world.**

 **I guess that's always been the point of this in a way, but it's only now that I've really recognized that.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.17

* * *

So you know those scientists Alphys called?

They're here now.

"What in the world is going on here!?"

Everyone turned to the stairs to see a practically bald, white haired old man in a lab coat staring at them all with a furious look and his mouth hanging open.

"Just another normal day for us. How bout you?" AJ asked casually with a grin.

Before the old man could respond to that, another figure came down the stairs so quickly he nearly stumbled and fell when he reached the bottom and stepped past the older gentlemen. This new figure was a much younger man who still had a full head of short-ish black hair. He was carrying a fairly large briefcase that looked close to bursting in his right hand, and instead of wearing his lab coat it was currently over his left shoulder.

He took note of the monster in the lab coat of her own and quickly bowed to her slightly. "I would like to apologize in advance for the behavior of this gentleman here. The rest of the scientific community really is much more, um, shall we say 'polite' than him." He said, panting slightly.

" 'This gentleman'? I have a name, you know." The oldest of the two pointed out, glancing at him slightly. "And stand up straight, will you? You're supposed to look presentable."

"Yes sir but one, I figured you would rather introduce yourself, and two, you went ahead of me and I didn't want to be late for the introductions." The younger gentleman responded before straightening up and turning his head back to the lizard. "Hello there, Doctor Alphys. We've spoken on the phone before, but it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I, am Sam Conway."

"And I am Doctor Jack Thomas." The grumpy one said.

"Now if you don't mind, I have to go grab the rest of our equipment." Sam spoke up before setting down the briefcase and going back upstairs to get the other one. He had put his coat on by the time he came back.

"Oh! Here! I cleared up this table for you both to use." Alphys said while pointing to a table to Josh's left that had a good view of the testing area.

"Thank you, Doctor Alphys." Sam said kindly as the two older humans moved their stuff to said table and began setting up.

"Why do you keep calling her 'Doctor'? It's not like she actually earned a degree anywhere..." Doctor Thomas pointed out to Sam.

Alphys overheard this and sighed in annoyance.

"Well, at least he called you a 'she' and not an 'it'." AJ mumbled.

"Yes, that is true." The lizard agreed hesitantly. "It's worth remembering what Doctor Conway said. I'm pretty sure he's just this way to everyone." Part of that reasoning was simply to calm herself down.

The older teen chuckled. "Heh, yeah. There are humans _and_ monsters that are that way."

"Still doesn't make me want to punch this guy in the face any less…" Undyne said through her teeth. Jack glanced at the monsters and caught Undyne glaring at him. He simply looked back at his equipment and papers and didn't facially react to her.

"It's fine, Undyne, really." Alphys said, hoping to calm her girlfriend.

The warrior couldn't help but think about how Alphys used to be, and how she would have been hurt by harsh words and disrespect. She was still worried. "Hmph. It'll be fine as soon as he starts respecting you."

"So why exactly are you guys here to do tests on us mages?" AJ asked curiously.

Doctor Conway turned to them with an excited smile. "Well, you see, I'm a theoretical physicist-"

"A what?" Frisk asked with a confused tilt of her head.

"-so I'm used to dealing with the strange and the difficult to understand. Ever since you released magic and monsters into the world, I've been wondering if there is any science behind it all! Then I learned that the monsters had a scientist of their own, and eventually I was able to contact her and spend some time on the phone with her! Alphys tried to explain some things about magic to me, but most of it has gone over my head. Honestly I think she needs to teach a full course on magic." He commented. "Anyway, I asked her if she would be willing to give me a chance up close with you mages, and she was kind enough to allow me that chance!"

"And why are _you_ here?" Frisk asked the old man curiously.

He turned to the girl and chuckled a bit. "Well one day I found Samuel here running around and practically shouting for joy that he was going to see all this magical junk, and I had to admit that I was curious about this all as well, I mean who wouldn't be?" He asked rhetorically before gaining a bit of a proud smile. "You see, I'm not just some old man with a Ph.D., I'm actually the kind of doctor you kids think of when you hear the word 'doctor'. I wanted to see if this magic is having any effects on a human's health, good or bad."

"Well, what do you want us to do?" AJ asked.

"Who is 'us'?" Jack asked, pretending to be stupid.

"The people you're here to watch do a magic show?" The older teen answered, annoyed.

"Ah, yes. Go right ahead." The doctor said, waving his hand to the testing area.

The younger doctor looked up from his papers when he noticed the three special humans standing in the area slightly below them. He realized what they were about to do and gained an excited smile. "To finally see magic up close and not through some video on the internet… This is exciting!"

AJ smirked before shrugging casually. "Well, I mean… if you really want to see magic up close, you could just…" His hand turned green and glowed. "turn around?"

Sam cocked an eyebrow in confusion and curiosity before turning to look behind him. His eyes widened as he came face to face with a small vertical green slab floating in front of him. "Oh! Incredible! I thought there would be some sort of sound to go with it!" He commented as he began circling the barrier to get a look at it from all angles.

"Yeah, I like to pretend that are little sparkly sound effects like in an anime, but there really isn't." The older teen commented with a chuckle.

Doctor Conway made an invisible globe around the barrier with his hand. He felt nothing. No strings, no invisible force holding it up, nothing. "May I touch this?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure." AJ answered.

"You don't have to worry, Doctor Conway. Human magic doesn't hurt humans on contact." Alphys spoke up.

"Um, it doesn't hurt monsters either though…" The cloaked boy commented, now unsure of his knowledge of his own magic.

"Huh?" Alphys turned to him with a confused look for a moment. "Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that it did. It's just that there are a few monsters who use magic that harms you if you simply touch it, like blue attacks. That isn't true for human magic, they have more… utility. Well, at least with the magics we know of right now."

They looked back at the doctor only to see him pushing against the slab with all his might. His feet slipped back and he realized he wasn't getting anywhere, so he stopped with a sigh. "Well, if nothing else I know it just feels like a normal solid object… Not much of a texture either. It's just a blank, solid… thing, if you ignore the fact that it's just a bit warm." That was when he realized everyone was staring at him. "What? I wanted to see if it could be moved." He responded calmly.

"They don't move, they break." AJ said.

"What do you mean?" Doctor Thomas asked.

"He means that no matter how hard you push on them, they aren't gonna budge." Undyne answered before smirking and walking up to Doctor Conway and the small barrier between him and her. "All that happens when you hit them hard enough…" She pulled her arm back. "is they break!" She punched the barrier at full force and it shattered into small green shards. Sam shouted and raised his clipboard just in time to shield his face from the pieces.

He lowered the clipboard and quickly looked around for pieces of magic to pick up, but found none. "Where are the shards? I was hoping to keep one for study." The doc asked.

"A human's Soul Energy is different from normal magic." Alphys started. "It can't sustain itself without the focus and will of the mage's soul. Where a monster willingly releases their magic to get rid of it, a human just willingly stops focusing on the energy and it will fade away."

"So you're saying they don't take the energy back?" Jack asked for confirmation.

"Nope." Frisk answered as she shook her head. "Once you activate the energy, you're kinda just…" she wiggled her arms in front of her. "sending it out to do its thing, and then it gets to leave."

"Yeah we can't really take the energy back once we use it. I've tried, but I can't make it go back into my soul. Which is fine, seeing as our souls always create more magical energy for us to use."

"Why did you ask that, exactly?" Josh asked the older scientist curiously.

"What does it matter?" Jack responded.

Doctor Conway leaned in with a grin. "Well you see, Doctor Thomas had actually expressed to me his own theory on mages on the way here. Well, I suppose calling it a theory is a bit much. It was more of a simple guess, one of a few, actually." He didn't notice his colleague glaring into the back of his skull. "The thought he seemed to have thought out the most was that human mages reuse their magical energies. But you are saying that isn't the case."

"Yep." Frisk responded.

"Yeah, that's right." AJ agreed.

"I haven't been able to get energy back either." Josh agreed as well.

"You, what is your name again?" Sam asked the darker toned boy.

"Josh." They answered.

"Josh, I must confess that I am most interested in what you are capable of. The world knows that you are a mage, but it still doesn't know what you can do. Would you please honor us with a demonstration of your abilities?" Doctor Conway requested.

The boy nodded and took a moment to focus once again. He raised his arm forward and soon had five magic teal vines extending from his fingers and lazily floating in front of him.

"Interesting, very interesting!" Sam exclaimed. "What can you do with those?"

"Grab objects out of my reach, basically." Josh answered.

"And do they have to stay connected to your fingertips?" The younger doctor asked.

"Yes. I create them from the tips of my fingers, and as far as I can tell, I cannot disconnect them." The younger teen answered.

"So, as far as I can tell, your fingers are not only glowing a certain light blue color, but they have actually changed to that color as well, why is that?" Conway asked.

"Oh!" AJ spoke up. "That's because that's where the soul energy is being focused and activated."

"How did you know that?" Josh asked, turning his head to look at the cloaked boy.

"It's the same for my hand." He answered, holding up his hand as it did more than just glow green. He continued speaking, though he looked back at the scientists to make it clear he was speaking to them as well. "When you focus enough soul energy into a certain place in your body, you can feel that you could do something with it. That's when you 'activate' the energy, and then that part of your body where the magic was focused will turn to the color of your soul and glow. It's a bright enough glow though that it kinda masks the unnatural color change."

"I see, I see…" The doctor had remembered his notes and began quickly writing down what he had learned and seen so far.

"How long did it take you to learn to do that?" Jack asked.

"I had managed to do it within a day, and felt confident with it by the next day." The patient soul answered.

"It comes to you that quickly?" The old doctor asked, a bit surprised.

The boy nodded. "I believe I will get better at controlling them and that I will be able to move them and create them faster, but the base ability still came very easily."

"Yeah it just comes naturally to you once you get the hang of the soul energy itself." The older teen said. "Humans having magic used to a normal and natural thing, so we think that the natural ability to use it is still buried in our souls, just waiting to be awakened by magic."

"Who is 'we'?" Sam asked, confused.

"Me, Frisk, and Alphys." The kind soul answered.

"I actually had a dream that taught me how to use my magic in a different way!" Frisk commented.

"Which just adds to the theory, in my opinion. Our souls are trying to teach us how to use magic again through our dreams." AJ said. He of course did not know that was the truth, it was just what he assumed.

"Did you learn how to use your magic through a dream?" Sam asked the younger boy.

He shook his head. "No. I was just practicing making my soul energy flow when I put some it into my hands and got a funny feeling in my fingers." Josh answered. "I put more energy there and I started to realize what that funny feeling was." He turned to the older teen. "It's like you said, I could feel that I would be able to do something if I just used the energy somehow."

"And how exactly do you 'use' or 'activate' this energy?" Doctor Conway asked.

"That's… kind of hard to explain." The teal soul started, with the two humans beside him nodding in agreement. "I know that the energy needs to be in the right place or it can't be activated… In a way you just have to think about it being activated, but that isn't really _just_ it. You have to think that while really focusing on it, and there's this… feeling in the energy that you can tell is it reacting to you… But even that feels like I'm simplifying it too much." The struggle to try and explain this was written quite a bit on his face.

"It really is just something you can't explain with words, and even if you do, it would only make sense to another mage." AJ said with a shrug.

"Well… that is frustrating, but I suppose it can't be helped. I understand that some things are just that way." Sam said with a sigh.

"Your name is 'Frisk', right, girl?" Doctor Thomas asked.

Said child nodded. "Mhm."

"You said a dream taught you how to use your abilities differently?" The old man asked.

"Yeah." She answered with another nod. "I used to only be able to do one thing with my magic." She turned to AJ. "Um, could you..."

"Oh! Right!" He created a large barrier in front of her that the scientists could easily see. "There ya go."

Using her soul magic, Frisk's hand glowed red as she reached out and touched the green wall, causing part of it to fall apart in front of her. "I learned how to do that on my own." She commented.

"What does that feel like to you?" Samuel asked the older teen.

"I just lose the connection to my magic. Doesn't feel uncomfortable or anything." The boy answered.

Alphys had no problem making what they know about the abilities of mages public knowledge. She even had a webpage made where people can talk about the known abilities and express their own theories about what the other souls might be able to do. Sometimes she and the mages discover something that leads to her changing the description of the souls. Determination's description has progressed from "It breaks magic walls?" to eventually becoming "I think it blocks other Soul Magics."

The older teen knew what to do next and recreated his see-through magic wall. "But then in that dream, I learned to do this!" Frisk said as her hand once again turned red. She touched the barrier and it flashed red for a moment before completely collapsing. She then smiled and did a little twirl. "Tadaaa!"

"How did you learn to do that in a dream?" Doctor Conway asked curiously.

"It was really weird! I just kind of woke up in the middle of nowhere, except I wasn't actually awake- I was still in the dream. And then a green wall appeared in front of me like the ones AJ makes, and I really wanted to use magic on it for some reason, so I did! And then I broke a me-sized hole in it the way I usually would, but then another one popped up behind me, and I felt my magic energy moving on its own! And I followed it as it went down into my hand, and then it started building up there, but it didn't do it the way I normally would, it was… well it was different! And then I reached out and touched the barrier, and the whole thing fell apart! And then I woke up and woke AJ up so I could try it while I was awake, and it worked! So now I know how to do that." The girl finished before finally relaxing.

Jack blinked twice in confusion before opening his mouth to comment.

"Interesting…" Sam mumbled to himself as he wrote vigorously into his notes.

The older of the two human doctors overheard this and turned to him with a stunned look. "You actually understood all that!?"

"Well of course! Didn't you?" The one with hair responded before continuing his writing.

Alphys' eyes widened and you could almost see the light bulb turn on above her head. "I just had an idea!" Everyone turned to her. "Frisk, Josh, I need to confirm something! I need to see if Frisk's magic really does block out any soul magic that a human uses!"

"So, just, like this?" The teal soul asked as he created vines from one hand and let them slowly swim through the air towards Frisk.

"Yes, just like that." Alphys answered.

Once the ropes reached Frisk, she reached out to them with her glowing hand and touched the end of one of them. Two feet of the magic rope turned red before crumbling into pieces that faded away before they could get half way to the floor. Josh's eyes widened slightly at this before using more magic to extend that rope back to the same length as the others.

Alphys gasped. "It does!" She exclaimed with a smile. "Try it again!"

The child reached to two of the vines and touched them. They both glowed red before disappearing completely. The feeling caught the boy off guard so much that he lost focus on his magic completely, causing all the ropes to fade away. "You cut them off at the source… that felt really weird." He commented as he stared at the tips of his fingers.

"Are you okay?" Frisk asked, a bit concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Josh said assuredly and smiled a bit. "Can we try that one more time?"

"Yeah, sure." The girl answered.

He once again used his magic to create teal vines that reached out to her, only this time they were extended much more and were all reaching past her. "Do you mind if I bind you with them?"

"Are you gonna be gentle with her?" AJ asked quickly.

"I promise I will." The younger teen answered.

Frisk nodded an affirmative to him to let him begin. "Alright, put your arms to your sides please." He requested, and she did just that. The vines then slowly and gently wrapped around her and trapped her. She struggled a little, but couldn't get free. "Okay, so you could probably get out of that with pure strength if you tried, but let's pretend for a minute that you can't. How are you going to get out of this?" He asked with a smirk.

She smirked as well at this fun little test before closing her eyes and focusing. She groaned as she started to strain against her binds and a red glow started to emanate from her body. The glow reached the ropes and they completely fell apart around her, freeing her to step back from him and his magic.

"Well there ya go!" AJ commented with a smile that the three mages all shared.

"Good job." Josh complimented the girl.

"Whoo! I did it!" Frisk cheered.

At that moment Alphys realized she would need to change her description for Determination's abilities to "It definitely blocks other Soul Magics!"

* * *

"I remember reading that mages can make themselves stronger than a human should be capable of." Doctor Thomas spoke. "Can you show us exactly how strong?" He asked curiously.

"Well to simplify it, we're almost as strong as Undyne." The kind soul answered.

"And how strong are you?" Jack asked the fish monster.

"I can lift up a car!" Undyne answered with a somewhat terrifying grin of excitement.

"Do you mean… like one side of the car, or-" Sam started.

"No, the whole car! Wanna see!?" The royal guard answered before quickly running over to the stairs. She stopped herself at the first step and looked over her shoulder at the scientists. "You guys didn't come here in anything super pricy, right?"

"U-Undyne!?" Alphys exclaimed before running over to the fish and pulling her back from the stairs. "You can't just go picking up people's vehicles when you want to show off! You could break it!"

"Yeah, I _know_ the stupid things are fragile, that's why I asked if it was something expensive first!" Undyne responded.

The two adult humans sweatdropped. "We'll just take your word for it when it comes to your strength…" Jack commented before looking back at the younger humans. "All we really need is the mages to show their strength in some way."

"Hmm…" Sam hummed in thought before suddenly gaining an incredibly excited look on his face. "I've wanted to see that in person for years…" He turned to Alphys suddenly. "Doctor Alphys! Do you have a desk or a table that you can spare!?"

"Um… I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure I use every table that's in here…" The monster said almost to herself.

"Do you have any that you can afford to lose until we buy you a replacement!?" The enthusiastic scientist asked.

"Um… yes, but what are you planning to do?" Alphys asked, slightly worried.

"Bring me one and I will show you!" He answered.

"Um… okay…" The monster scientist walked off into sans's portion of the lab. "Sans probably won't mind losing this table for a bit…"

"Excellent! Thank you!" Doctor Conway adamantly took the table and placed it in front of the mages with a *thud*.

"So… do you want us to lift this or break it?" Josh asked, slightly confused.

"Probably break it. It's small and we could probably lift it without magic." AJ answered.

"I want you…" Sam pointed at the small but thick table with gusto. "to AXE KICK THIS TABLE!"

The mages paused for a second. """Why?""" They asked almost simultaneously.

"I have always wanted to see someone do this in person! It rates quite high in my list of top forms of destruction!" Doctor Conway answered.

"Just axe kicking a desk?" The older teen questioned.

"All the videos I've seen are great and all, but there's always some set up to it! None of it is legitimate! But this!? This would be completely legitimate! You have the strength to do it without any set up, don't you?" Sam asked.

"Well, I mean yeah." AJ answered hesitantly.

"Well I don't think I need to say more, then!" The younger scientist said before turning around and walking back up to where his notes were at.

"Uhh… okay then." The kind soul spoke awkwardly. "Everyone back up, please, in case pieces go flying or something." He requested, and his fellow mages took a few steps back from him.

"Be careful…" Frisk said worriedly.

He turned and smiled at her. "I will, don't worry." He then created magic barriers around him and trapped himself in a green see-through box. "This alright?" He asked the doctors.

"Well… it would be better if my vision wasn't obscured _at all_." Sam answered, clearly displeased.

"Why are you being picky about this?" Jack asked.

"Actually, the two side rooms are often used to view dangerous experiments." Alphys pointed out.

"Oh, right! We could just do that then!" AJ realized.

"Sure! That will work!" Conway answered, and everyone but the green soul was soon standing in sans's portion of the lab and looking through the window at the testing area.

"Alright, AJ, we're ready." Alphys said through the intercom.

"Alright!" He responded before turning to the table and talking to himself. "Kay… can I actually do this? I've never axe kicked something before… Am I even that flexible?" He raised his extended leg and placed it on the table. "Eh, I'll make it work." He then lowered his leg, took a breath, and swung his leg up before dropping it as hard as he could.

*CRASH*

With soul energy flowing through his body and strengthening the muscles in his leg, he split the desk down the middle and caused both ends to collapse inward and pieces of wood to fly in every direction.

"Huh… I think I put more in than I needed to." The boy said to himself, referring to his use of soul energy in his leg.

He came out of his thoughts and observations and realized Doctor Conway was shouting like he had just seen his football team make an amazing touchdown pass. Once the doc realized how awkward it was that he was the only one freaking out like that, he calmed down quickly. Everyone came out of the side room and back into the testing area.

"Well that was cool!" Undyne commented with a chuckle.

"Yes, it um… sure was." Sam said awkwardly.

"Yeah, that was… pretty fun actually." AJ commented. "Except, _ow_ , my side hurts for some reason!" He said as pain suddenly appeared in his right side and he clutched the spot where it hurt.

"Oh! Did you not initially feel that shard hit you?" Sam asked, slightly surprised.

"The what?" The green soul asked weakly.

"I distinctly recall seeing one of those shard pieces of the desk flying into your side and colliding with you. I knew I had no reason to worry though, since you can heal yourself." Doctor Conway explained.

"I mean, yeah, I can…" The boy groaned.

"I said to be careful." Frisk said, sad to see him in pain.

"And I was." He said to her with a weak smile. "I let soul energy through the rest of my body so it wouldn't hurt as much if something went wrong. Though I'll get to healing that now." He held up his hand as it began producing green mist.

"Wait a second." Jack spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "May I see your wound before you remove it?"

"Um… sure?" AJ answered hesitantly.

The doctor walked up to the mage and crouch down next to him to inspect the spot where he had been hit. He hummed to himself. "Can you explain what you meant about making this hurt less?"

"Oh. Well, you see I noticed one day while sparing with Undyne that if soul energy was flowing through my body when I got hit, things hurt less. An obvious connection, but I'm not sure exactly how it works." AJ explained.

Jack hummed in understanding. "Well adrenaline is probably what delayed your pain, but adrenaline doesn't protect your body."

"Yes, I can't help but notice there's almost no visible wound, which there should be considering the speed of those shards." Samuel commented from the side.

"Right? There's barely so much as a bruise! I would have expected an open would if that had hit right. Are you sure you didn't use your so called 'healing magic' on it already?" Doctor Thomas questioned.

"I'm sure, promise." He answered.

"So does that mean that just having soul energy flowing through you protects your body from harm?" Josh guessed.

"Seems like it." AJ responded. "Explains why things don't hurt as much."

"Something you didn't already know? Now that's interesting!" Sam commented with a smile.

"Well the only things we know about soul magic are that there are seven different traits because I found some ancient human documents, and everything the mages have learned so far." Alphys commented.

"Wait, you have ancient human documents!?" Doctor Conway asked, surprised.

The lizard grew a bit embarrassed. "W-Well, I was exaggerating a bit when I said I found documents… I really just found some pieces of paper that are burnt and worn to the point where it's hard to make anything out. Not only that, but ancient humans wrote in an entirely different language from anything that exists today, so I'd spent a long time just trying to decipher them." She explained.

"How ancient are they?" Jack asked.

"As far as we can tell… they're older than what you'd expect… like… by a lot." Alphys answered.

"So what you're saying is…" Sam trailed off as he wasn't exactly sure what she was saying.

"Well you humans figured out that interesting 'carbon dating' trick, so I'm able to say with fair certainty…" She took a deep breath and she realized what she was about to say to two scientists who had never heard this news before. "We think that there was an ancient human civilization, full of mages, that existed in this area in a time thousands of years ago."

"Before the native Americans of Columbus's time?" Sam guessed.

"Actually, the dating processes say around 23000 years ago." Alphys said.

"Impossible!" Jack exclaimed.

"Wasn't the ice age still going on then?" Doctor Conway commented.

"Why was no evidence of this found before!?" Doctor Thomas asked.

"I'm not sure. It's as if they and their civilization vanished without a trace." The monster scientist answered.

"I suppose if it was that old, and in an area where a modern city exists now, it _would_ be hard to find evidence of it." Samuel commented to himself.

"Don't tell me you actually believe this!?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Of course not! I'm just not ruling out the possibility!" Doctor Conway responded.

"Where did you get these documents?" Jack questioned Alphys.

"W-Well, at the end of the war, monsters had taken some human books, and we ended up putting them in our library. Eventually those books were added to our collection in the larger library in New Home." She started. "Then… one day a fire broke out in that library. The entire place was burned to the ground, but they managed to save a few books. Asgore kept the ones about humans somewhere private, but when the barrier fell, he gave them to me and let me learn what I could from them. That's how I know what little I know about them now."

"Well, I'm not going to believe it just because you said that." Jack said after a moment.

"Of course not, sir, I don't expect you too!" Alphys said, in agreement. "There's definitely not enough evidence to know for sure yet!"

"Still, that would be pretty cool if it was true." AJ commented.

"I always wondered that when the war between humans and monsters was first mentioned. I didn't know of any civilization that fought some monster race." Josh commented as well.

"You never heard of the legends around here?" The older teen asked, a bit surprised.

"Wait, but how has that legend survived the test of time when their civilization hasn't?" Sam asked himself.

"Though if the ancient humans lived around here, that would explain why the legend is only told in Onyx." AJ pointed out.

"How _did_ it survive that long though? That's _really_ weird, actually." Alphys commented.

"It's impossible is what it is." The grumpy old man commented.

"I absolutely _have_ to write this all down while it's in my mind!" The younger doctor said before running back to his notes. Half way through his lightning fast writing he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and his eyes widened. "JACK!" He shouted. "We have to leave RIGHT NOW!"

"What!? Why!?" The man asked.

"Our next meeting just got pushed forward! We have to be there in fifteen minutes!"

" _Fifteen_!?" Doctor Thomas asked in astonishment before running up to help pack up their equipment and papers.

"I am terribly sorry about this sudden change in plans, Doctor Alphys!" Conway said as he hurriedly packed his papers into a briefcase. "I hope we may continue working together at another time!"

"I look forward to it, Doctor Conway!" Alphys said.

"Farewell everyone!" Sam said with a final wave before leaving up the stairs. Everyone waved back and said their goodbyes as the older humans rushed out.

…

"Well that was certainly something." Alphys commented.

"That one guy sure was fast…" Undyne commented. "I bet it'd be fun to cook something with him!"

"I'm sure he'd love blowing stuff up with you…" AJ commented, sweatdropping at the thought of those two "cooking" together.

"Soooo are we done then?" Josh asked the lizard.

"Uh… yes, that will be all, Josh." She answered. "I just needed you guys to show what you can do to those two is all."

"Alright." He responded with a nod before turning to his fellow humans. "Do you guys mind if I still come over to your place?"

"Hey, if you still think you need to hide from the cameras, I don't mind." The older teen answered.

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" The red soul added with her usual cheerfulness. "We even got extra controllers in case you want to play videogames with us!"

Alphys suddenly gasped. "GUYS!" Everyone turned to her after she shouted like that. She took a moment to relax just a bit. "Before I forget, AJ, you need to test the, uh, the MSD!" She said as she ran off into her side of the lab.

"You really think it'll work this time?" The boy asked.

The monster scientist came out of her lab holding nothing more than an odd metal hilt. "I'm almost certain it will work." She said with an unusual hint of confidence in her voice.

He smiled before walking up and taking it from her hands. "Here's hoping, then."

"What's this?" Josh asked curiously.

"You'll see in a sec." Was all Frisk would say as she grinned excitedly. He had no choice but to accept this and simply stood to the side with her and waited.

The green soul held the hilt in front of him in his right hand. This version looked like the complete product. No wires sticking out, and no wires were connecting to a power source. This one had all the technology inside of it, including its power source.

He pressed the red button and let his soul energy flow into it. Once enough was in it, a blade of green energy shot out of it and kept its form. With no wires in his way, he was free to swing it around at full speed without worry. He sliced at the air a few times, lunged at a few imaginary enemies, and even did a jumping slash just to really appreciate the freedom he had with it now.

Josh stared in slight awe while Frisk and Alphys were jumping with joy.

"Cool! It works!" The girl exclaimed.

"Yes! It works! It really works!" Alphys cheered.

"Awesome! I'm glad you finally got this working, Alphys!" AJ said.

"I should be thanking you for testing all the older versions for me!" The lizard monster realized. "Though, actually, this is going to become an older version, too." She commented as she was handed back the device. "The final product will be able to become any tool an individual may need. I can't wait!"

"So what exactly is that?" Josh asked.

"Oh, well you see…" Alphys launched into a long and passionate explanation of the object, the technology behind it, and her dreams of what this will do for people."

* * *

 **Damn it- the more I wrote Sam Conway's lines the more he just became Dr. Oobleck in my head! XD**

 **Ok so I'm just gonna stop saying that their hands glowed and turned to a color and just say that it did one of the two, cause you guys know it does both at this point. If it ever only does one or the other I'll say "Their hand just glowed their color" or something like that.**

 **And one more random thing:** _ **Dialogue is a pain**_ **, and I'm just gonna leave it at that instead of going on another long-winded thing.**

 **Well, I hope you were able to somehow enjoy this chapter. And, I hope you all have a very good day, and a great rest of the week!**

 **OK but seriously can anyone think of a good name for the magic shaping things? I don't care if it's an abbreviation or not, as long as I get a name that isn't as lame as the ones I've come up with. I can never think of anything catchy!**


	18. With Great Power

**So not long after posting that last chapter, I got to thinking about the effects of magic again, and my mind just kinda went wild. I ended up with an idea, and I just really wanted to write it.**

 **So here ya go. A short extra chapter that's really just me going on a tangent.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.18

* * *

With the thoughts that were flowing through his mind, AJ decided to make a post for people on the internet to see. "I might as well say this now, while everyone is paying attention to the topic. It's something for people to think about, especially people who find themselves with magical abilities in the future.

'With great power comes great responsibility.'

Most of us have heard that before, right? I personally can't help but think of superheroes like Spiderman whenever I hear that quote. Though to be completely honest, I'd never thought about what it meant much, since I was just a kid when I used to hear that. But seriously, if you can do it, stop and _really_ think about that phrase for awhile. Think about what it means.

And now, knowing that most of you didn't take a moment to think about it, I'm just going to help explain.

If someone has the power to destroy an entire planet, they would then have a great responsibility on their hands. They would have to be responsible enough to not abuse their power, to not kill innocent people. But I can simply that.

Everyone has the power to kill. This is the modern world, people. Anyone can pick up a gun and use it. But, most people who are reading this and have a gun in their home are responsible people. Just because they _can_ take their gun and kill whoever they point it at, doesn't mean they do. It's going to be the same for mages, only they'll have a bit more power in a way.

When you have a great power, like having a gun, or having magic, you are responsible for what you do with it. You can do nothing with it, you can hurt people, or you can do good, maybe even heal people. And for future mages, _rather you wanted it or not_ , you will have a responsibility. Regardless who you are, or how old you are, you are going to have to grow up and be responsible. Humanity in general is going to have to grow up and take responsibility. No one _has_ to use their power, whatever it may be, for evil. If you just take responsibility, you can easily do good, or at least do no harm.

And if there are more responsible people out there, who knew when to and when not to use their powers, then it would be a lot harder for selfish and evil people to abuse theirs. The world we live in now is full of people who, if they were in a crowd when something bad happened, would all run for cover. A normal person can't do much about a gun after all. But if just a few people in that crowd were mages, then they would have the power to stand up for everyone and protect people.

I don't understand much of the other topics to speak about those, but magic could easily be what reduces crime, if it works out the way I see it going in my head. Even if magic doesn't end up spreading to that many people in the world, all it takes is those mages being responsible and the world could still be safer. And if those mages became police members or sheriffs, they'd do even more good.

A world where even the average citizen could defend themselves and others.

I'm not usually much of an optimist myself, but if anyone was looking for a way to look at this change in a positive light, I'd say that's one way you could do it."

"Yeah, well if more people with guns were responsible, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place, would there? Giving so many people a power like 'magic' is going to get us all killed. Why in the world do you think this will be different? Why would everyone suddenly just stop abusing their power?" It was the first comment on his post, and it was a good question. He figured he should answer it.

"Well, first off, even if you go back in time to before the gun, people were stabbed. In fact that still happens today. The thing about those weapons is that they are man-made tools, and not everyone has one or is willing to use one. The bad people out there use them to kill, but magic can easily be different. We don't know what abilities mages will have yet, but magic could be used to stop people without hurting or killing anyone, AND, everyone would have it. It wouldn't be something that you would have to get, like a knife or gun. It's basically the 'give everyone a gun' approach, but less violent.

Other than that, I just have this feeling that so many people gaining this power is going to change humanity. People are going to be forced to grow up, people are going to be forced to learn to live with having these powers. People aren't going to be able to just sit around, not when they have the power to do something/just power in general.

I just can see the event of gaining this power is going to make someone go through a big mental change, it will force them to grow up and learn how to be responsible. If that happened to one person, than it would happen to many, and humanity as a whole would change from it. Can't you see that? Can't you imagine people being forced to learn what many these days just never learn? I wouldn't expect to see the effects for a few years, at least, but I think it would happen someday. I just can't help but see it happening like that."

He made one more short post since he figured it was necessary.

"The tl;dr version of everything I just posted about is 'If people are given a great power, they will be forced to be responsible, and I think that would make the world safer and make humanity change for the better."

Of course, no matter how sound an idea seems to you, there will always be people who completely disagree. The comments showed exactly what he expected, people who managed to find something wrong with the idea, because they always do, and people who totally agreed with him.

But the simple fact was that he was dealing with the internet and humanity as it is now, unaffected by any forced change like magic. At that moment, he honestly hoped he would live long enough to see, to find out if there actually would be a noticeable change in people.

* * *

 ***In before someone tells me to stop.**

 **Don't bother. My passion won't let me.**

 **Have a good day, everyone!**


	19. Get off my lawn

**Heeeeeey writing's hard. I'm sorry for always taking so long.**

 **Honestly think I'm going to get to the next chapter faster just so we can move past this one.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.19

* * *

Only a few days after he officially revealed his powers to his new friends, Josh found himself walking down the street on a normal, sunny day. His parents were away at work and couldn't drive him over to the Dreemurr household, so he had to walk. Walking outside wasn't a fun thing anymore, thanks to the feeling of cameras always watching him. It took its toll.

Seeing the camera woman and man with a microphone walking up to him, however, brought some relief for him. He was alright with the media being the media, it was just the stalking him that was uncomfortable.

"Hello there!" The woman with lose brown hair greeted with a bright smile.

"Hello." Josh greeted with a polite smile.

"Young man, we're with the local news." The man with slicked back black hair started.

"Which you probably already figured out." The woman commented.

The man squinted at her for a brief moment and she chuckled awkwardly. "Yes, well we would like to ask you some questions if you wouldn't mind."

"I don't mind at all." The boy replied.

"Excellent!" The man exclaimed. At this, the woman raised her large camera and started recording. "First off then… How does it feel to be a mage?"

He took a moment to think about that. "It feels incredibly natural once I figure it out. So natural in fact that I sometimes forget that having magic isn't normal." He eventually answered.

"I find _that_ hard to believe." The camerawoman commented with a snarky tone before receiving a light glare from her partner.

"Next question..." The man said before letting out a sigh. "Screw it, we're skipping to the point. Show us what your magic looks like!" He requested excitedly. "That monster scientist already posted what you can do, so we know what it is, we just need to see it!"

Josh glanced over his shoulder and saw a dangerous looking group far down the road from them. "I'm sorry, but there's really no point in that."

"Whaaat!?" The woman whined.

"There will be other mages like me that will be more willing to use their magic." He said before walking past them. "You're welcome to follow me if you want. Who knows? Maybe I'll have to use my magic during my walk."

"You're alright with us following you?" The one holding the camera asked.

"Believe me when I say that even if you don't come with, there will be _someone_ else with a camera to catch me using magic." The boy responded before looking across the street.

Red and blue hair ducked into a bush.

"Was… someone there?" The man asked unsurely before noticing the teen was walking off without them.

* * *

Toriel leaned into the living room. "Breakfast is ready, children." She spoke before chuckling in embarrassment. "They are much less burnt this time."

AJ rushed in and quickly shut the door before turning and looking out the window. "I'll deal with you guys later, don't worry." He said to the zombies threateningly before he and Frisk got up from the couch and headed to the dinner table.

Toriel brought over their pancakes as they took their seats. "Once again, I am very sorry that I ruined these the first time and made you wait like this."

"And once again, it is totally fine, Toriel." The boy responded. "Everyone burns something once in awhile, and it's not like we had to wait long."

"I did not mean to get so distracted, but the dog in that video was quite adorable!" Goat Mom commented with a smile that quickly replaced by a confused look. "I do not know I managed to find that video. I was just checking to see the opinions people had of monsters, but then I found myself watching an interesting documentary about a general from "World War Two", and then somehow I ended up watching videos of dogs…"

The older human burst out laughing. "Yep! The internet'll do that to ya!"

"Did you know that dogs are not very good at playing on trampolines?" Toriel asked randomly. "It turns out they often tear them up, and then no one can enjoy them, not even the dogs." Her children chuckled at that.

Moments after they had finished eating, AJ's phone went off and he noticed he had gotten a text from Josh. "Huh?"

"Who is it?" Frisk asked curiously.

"A… apparently Josh is almost here, and I didn't get a text earlier about him heading this way, so… no idea what that's about." He answered, confused.

"Huh. Wonder why he's heading over…" The child commented.

The teen's phone vibrated again. "Hmm! Guess he's got something to show us." He noted.

The little girl gasped. "Do you think he learned how to do something new with his magic!?" She wondered.

"I hope so! That would be awesome!" AJ responded. He looked out the window and saw the familiar lightly colored shirt approaching. "What's with the two second warning, dude!?" He exclaimed before getting up to open the door.

The teal soul looked up when the door opened. "Sup."

"Hi!" Frisk greeted cheerfully in the background.

"Hey, uh… who are they?" The older teen greeted before noticing the guy with the mic and the woman with the large camera.

"My escorts." Josh answered with a bit of a smirk before turning to the two adults. "Sorry, guess I didn't need to use magic." He said with a shrug.

"D-Do you mind if we come in and ask some-" The man started.

"Alrighthaveagooddaybye!" AJ said as he pulled the boy in and shut the door. "It is way too early to be dealing with them…"

"Eh, they weren't so bad. They gave me good cover on the way here." The younger teen commented.

"Hello again, Josh." Toriel greeted.

"Hi, Ms. Dreemurr." The boy greeted back.

"So why were they escorting you?" The kind soul asked, confused.

"Well, I told them they would come along cause they might be the first to record me using magic, buuuuut that was a total lie. I really just needed them around so the guys from the gang would probably stay away." Josh explained.

" 'The gang'? As in, the cliché black gang that is doing the exact opposite of helping with the stereotype that all black guys are violent gangsters?" AJ asked.

"Yep…" The younger teen answered with a sigh.

"Why were they following you?" The green soul asked out of concern.

"I live over there." The boy answered.

"In the black part of town?"

"Yeah."

"What!?"

"What do you mean, 'what'? I'm black, dude!"

"You're not _that_ black!"

"My mom's white!"

"Fair enough!"

Josh caught motion in the corner of his vision and saw the news crew quickly moving away from a group of shady looking thugs. They looked exactly like what you'd expect black gangsters to look like. The boy sighed in annoyance. "I was hoping they'd leave me alone if I was in here…" He commented.

"Am I gonna have to step in?" AJ asked, already preparing mentally for a fight.

"No. This is my problem, let me handle it." The younger teen knew fully well that he was the reason they were in danger, and he intended to take responsibility for that.

"With all due respect, Josh, I-" The kind soul was cut off by the door being shut in his face as the boy went out to face the four thugs. "Damn it…" His paranoid mind was already jumping to conclusions and he was waiting to see the kid get shot on their front lawn.

The younger mage stopped a short distance from the group, and the one in the front smiled at him.

"Been awhile since we last seen ya, Josh! Ever since you got that magic s***, you been avoidin' us, hanging around _these_ people. You think your too good for us now?" He asked.

"I don't recall ever hanging out with you guys." Josh pointed out.

One of the thugs in the back sighed in annoyance. "Great. Here we go again with the smart guy act!"

"This fool always thought he was too good for us!" Another pointed out angrily.

The leader in the front leaned forward to get to the young teen's level. "I'm just gonna get to the point. Why do you trust those monsters, huh?"

"Why don't you trust the ones who have been around the monsters longer than we have?" The boy countered.

"Because they're lying, man! The monsters are making them say that!" The older one responded angrily.

"You don't know that." Josh pointed out.

"You don't know that they're telling the damn truth!" The man countered.

"Have you tried hanging around monsters?" The teen asked.

"Of course not! I'm not getting near those freakin' things!" The thug exclaimed.

Josh sighed. "I get not trusting them, but there's a fine line between paranoia and stubbornness."

"The hell are you sayin'?" The group leader said threateningly.

"I'm sayin' make sure you're actually being paranoid and not just making excuses for your stubbornness." Josh answered.

The older one had finally had enough of this. "Well, look who's all cocky now that he's got weird powers!" He pulled out a pistol from behind him and pointed it straight at the young boy. He grinned at the shocked look on Josh's face. "The powers those monsters gave you don't mean nothin' against _this_ , Joshy."

"Wanna bet?" The boy asked with a straight face. The bottoms of his shoes glowed a light blue, not that anyone could see that detail.

The thugs laughed.

"Come on, man, you know how this is gonna end…" The leader said with a cocky grin. "Just come back with us and get away from those freaks, before you regret it."

Josh raised his hands towards them, and his fingers glowed with his soul energy. The leader's grin became him gritting his teeth as he worried about what the boy could do. His composure fell quickly when the teal vines appeared and stretched out at them. "S***!" He jumped back from the magic with his arm extended.

*BANG!*

Overcome with fear, AJ threw the door open and ran out to help his friend. "What the…"

Thanks to the damage it had taken, the invisible barrier had revealed itself. Josh was standing inside a light blue box-shaped barrier, safe and sound. His magical ropes had easily fazed through the walls of the barrier and the thugs were all currently suspended in the air, flailing and panicking.

"I understand a bit of what you posted about now, AJ." The younger teen commented with a bit of a smile. "You guys have good reason to be paranoid. Once more people have magic, they'll be able to defend themselves from people like you. You won't be able to mug and murder whoever you want. People won't be afraid of you."

"How did you do that!?" The older teen asked, shocked.

"Are you okay!?" Frisk asked, concerned.

"This is actually what I came to show you." The boy responded. "Though I wasn't gonna do it like this."

"Put me down you son of a b-aaaaaagh!" The lead thug was cut off when the vines let go of them and they all fell to the ground with a collective thud. "Y-You're gonna pay for this, Josh…" He threatened as he slowly stood up.

AJ walked up next to his friend. "Get off our property, now." He ordered.

"Stay out of this, man. You're just gonna get in trouble." The patient one said to the boy next to him.

"As if I'm just gonna stand there!" The older one responded angrily.

Josh sighed in annoyance before raising his hands towards the thugs and creating more teal ropes. The group all widened their eyes in fear before trying to hide it.

"Whatever, man! This ain't worth it anymore!" The one in the front said before he and his group ran away.

Frisk sighed in annoyance. "Did you _have_ to threaten them?"

"Yes, Frisk. It's how you make people go away and _stay_ away." AJ responded.

The girl pouted. "That doesn't mean you had to do it…"

"That's not gonna make them stay away." The teal soul said with a frown. "They're just gonna come back and try to get revenge."

"Then I'll _really_ make them regret it." The green soul said with a glare pointed towards the far away gang members.

"And if they hurt someone here before you can stop them?" Josh asked.

"Then they'll wish I'd killed them." He growled out with eyes tinted red.

The younger teen cocked an eyebrow at that. "You sure you're trait's kindness?"

The taller one turned to him with a grin as a small green heart appeared over his chest. "Well what's this?"

"Hey how the heck do you do that?" The younger one asked, confused.

"I don't really know how to answer that right now…" AJ responded as he held his soul close and smiled peacefully.

Josh gained a curious look when his friend's eyes turned back to brown. "Anyone ever tell you your eyes turn red sometimes?" He asked.

"Hmm? What?" The taller one asked since he wasn't listening.

The boy shook his head. "Nevermind." He turned and walked up to Goat Mom. "Sorry for bringing this trouble over there."

"It is alright. No one was injured, and that is what matters." Toriel responded with a smile.

* * *

"Thanks to the strength and durability of mages, we might all want to just accept that our world is now an anime and kicking people across the street because they angered you is basically a thing now."

Within the comments was a message from Doctor Alphys. "Undyne just saw your post."

Below that text was a video.

The video starts off with Mettaton standing in the middle of the testing area of her lab and posing repeatedly. Suddenly, Undyne can be heard screaming excitedly as she runs into view. "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Said fish warrior picks up Mettaton and lifts him up over her head. "ANIME IS REEEAAALLL!" She shouts before throwing the robot right at Alphys, with him screaming as he flies through the air.

"Oh my gosh!" The lizard cries out as she ducks to avoid being hit. The video ends.

The first comment on that video was someone saying "The next time someone asks me why I like monsters, I'm showing them this."

* * *

 **So I've been writing for over two years now, apparently. I swear it hasn't been that long!**

 **Alright, so, I'm going to just pretend I know what the masses want and have the next chapter focus a bit more on monsters, or a monster… not really sure yet, honestly. It probably won't even be that long, but I figured you guys would probably want a bit of a respite before the AU makes things more crazy.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed (somehow?), and I hope you have a very good day, and a great week!**

* * *

 **K so I just stood in the rain listening to "It's raining somewhere else" for a few minutes so I just wanna write out a little scene real quick. Honestly it would be better off as a picture, not words, but I can't draw. It's also really small, so I'm not making another chapter just for it, so it's going here randomly instead.**

AJ woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of light tapping. As the tapping escalated, he began to recognize the sound. He turned to Frisk's side of the room and saw the raindrops hitting the window above her bed. It was too loud for him to sleep, so he decided to not bother trying. Instead he slowly got out of his bed and walked towards the window.

The sound of the rain masked all other noise in their room as he stopped next to her bed and admired the view. The street lights glowed brightly, creating balls of light where you could clearly see all the rain drops falling. The world shined and shimmered as light reflected off of nearly everything. The wet grass, the drops of water hanging off the bottom of every tree branch, the puddles on the sidewalk…

The wind changed direction and caused the rain to stop pelting their window. Now the only sound was that of the water pouring down from the gutters and into the puddles around them, the true sound of rain. He heard shifting to his left and turned his head to see Frisk was looking out the window from her comfy spot in her bed. She turned her eyes to him and they smiled at each other for a moment.

Since she was awake, he decided to climb onto the end of her bed and crawl closer to the window. He stood on his knees and rested his head in his arms as he stared out the window. A few moments later, he felt Frisk get up and crawl over to him. She assumed the same position next to him and they enjoyed the rain together.


	20. Are You Okay?

**Happy Anniversary!**

" **What anniversary?"? Don't you remember what happened on February 26** **th** **of last year?**

 **I POSTED THE FIRST CHAPTER OF PROTECTORTALE! *Cheers***

 **That's right, it's been exactly one year since this story/series first began! Back when I had no idea what I was doing, and I just started writing a story and was really weird and abrupt at first until I started getting into the groove of writing a story. XD That story currently sits at over a hundred favs AND follows (HOLY-!). To say that I didn't expect this fandom to be so accommodating would be an understatement. I'm glad my little project for the game I love and adore so much did so well!**

 **Still no idea what I did right. XD**

 **Because of that special occasion, I've decided, at the last possible minute, to make a chapter I wasn't going to make and post it on this special day. Also because I'm not done with the next real chapter yet. I'm** _ **almost**_ **done, but writing is slow, I can't focus and just write.**

 **So, have basically a bonus chapter.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

 **(honestly this isn't even I chapter I used this post to vent a lot of pos and neg emotions, which just adds to the list of a million reasons why I shouldn't be posting this today. I'm sorry but i'm a bit rushed)**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.20

* * *

AJ paused his game when he heard Frisk come back from school. "Welcome back!" He exclaimed with a smile.

"Hi!" The girl greeted as she stepped into the living room and set her backpack down as she plopped down on the couch.

"You doing alright?" He asked casually as he turned back to his game and unpaused it.

"Hmm…" She hummed in thought. "Well, nothing bad happened today…" She noted.

"I'd say that's pretty good!" The boy commented.

She smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Now look what I've been spending all day making!" AJ requested excitedly as he gestured to the screen.

"Whoa!" She gasped in awe. "A castle!?"

"With a moat and everything!" He added.

…

'Why do I suddenly feel like I'm being watched?' The teen asked himself. He looked around with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile, but from where he seated on his bed, he couldn't see anyone. "Mhm." He hummed knowingly and looked back down at his phone.

He suddenly felt someone poke his cheek and turned to his left to see golden eyes staring at him.

"Well hello there." He said.

"Are you okay?" She asked immediately.

"Of course." He answered. "Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, confused.

"You were frowning while you were looking at your phone. I thought you saw something on the internet that made you unhappy." Frisk explained with a frown.

He smiled at the sight of her concerned look. "Ah don't worry, Frisk. It was nothing major. I'm over it already, see?"

She smiled and relaxed. "Good. You're not allowed to be sad."

"Uh, excuse me? That's my line." AJ commented with a smirk, nudging her playfully and getting a laugh in response.

…

The taller human was surprised to see Frisk come home looking a bit annoyed. "You okay, sis?" He asked.

She sighed as she set her pack down and plopped down next to him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just some dumb school stuff."

"What school stuff _isn't_ dumb?" He asked rhetorically.

"I don't wanna think about it right now. Let me pet you!" She requested, suddenly leaning towards him and reaching for his hair.

"What? No!" He responded, caught off guard at the sudden request.

"Come ooon! You're hair looks really soft right now!" She complained as she leaned further towards him and tried harder to reach out.

He leaned further away and pushed her back with his leg. "No! Find something else to do!" He demanded.

"But I wanna pet yoouuu!" She responded.

"Frisk!" He complained.

"AJ!" She complained.

…

Frisk was dealing with the rare occasion of playing a video game alone when she heard someone come down the stairs. It took only moments for her fellow human to appear in the living room. Before she could say anything, he sat down next to her, picked her up, set her down on his lap, wrapped his arms tightly around her and nuzzled into her hair on the top of her head. She could feel how tense he was through the tight embrace. "A-Are you okay?" She asked, concerned.

"No." He answered with a stressed voice.

"What-"

"I had bad thoughts." He answered. "And I'm not thinking about them anymore… I just need to know you're here…" He whispered.

She wrapped her arms around his. "Okay… okay…" She said softly as she relaxed and began trying to help him relax.

…

"Hiya!" AJ shouted as his character attacked.

"Hya!" Frisk shouted as she counter attacked.

"Gah!"

"Haha!"

"Gotcha!"

"Darn it… Hiya!"

"Nope! Haha!"

" _Player defeated."_

"Damn, you almost had me there!" The boy exclaimed.

"Heh, did I?" The younger one asked, a bit surprised.

"Yep! You're learning really quick! I gotta be careful, or else you'll actually start beating me at this!" AJ commented.

The kid blushed a bit. "Really!?"

"Definitely." He answered with a grin. The game started up again. "Alright, round… which one is this again?" He asked with a chuckle.

"I don't know. Twelve?" She guessed as her character approached his.

"Alright, you ready?" The green soul asked.

Frisk made her character nod.

"Alright… three…"

"Two…"

"One…"

""GO!"" They both shouted, with the older one's character charging and the other's immediately turning around and running for cover.

"Really!?" AJ exclaimed before shouting in fear as arrows were shot at him, forcing him to run for his own cover. "You know, I really don't like that my cover is-" He was interrupted by an arrow hitting him in the head and knocking him back. "Right next to a cliff!" He shouted as he fell and died.

" _Player defeated._ "

"Pfft. Well that was mean." The boy commented jokingly at his sudden loss.

Frisk wrapped her arm around his.

He looked down at her in confusion. "Hey, you okay?" He asked, and in response she tightened her grip around his arm. He sighed. "Hey, come here." He requested before picking the kid up and setting her on his lap and wrapping his arms around her. "Try not to get too into the game, okay?" He said softly. "Remember where we are. Where are you?"

"…Home." She answered after a moment.

"And where am I?" AJ asked.

"Right here with me." She answered with a bit of a smile.

"And everything's alright." He said. "You want to keep playing, or you wanna stop?"

"It's okay. Let's keep going." She answered after she took a moment to really compose herself.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yeah." The red soul answered.

And so they started up the game again.

"Just… don't fall of a cliff, okay?" She requested quietly.

He sighed. "I won't, Frisk… not while you're still here." He answered.

And so their dialogue turned back into sound effects and laughter for a few more matches.

"Hey, um… Frisk?"

"Yeah?"

"I, um…" He paused for a long time, trying to figure out how to say what he'd wanted to say for awhile. Feelings are complicated, and not only is it hard to put them into the right words, but sometimes the person saying them has a particular way they want to say it as well. And to make it harder, he had never really said this before.

"It's okay, take your time." Frisk said calmly.

He finally settled on what to say. "…You know I love you, right, sis?" He asked hesitantly.

"Of course!" She answered with a big smile, tilting her head back to look up at him. "And I love you, too!" She said before going back to their game. Being the kind of person she is, she loves everyone, so it wasn't hard at all for her to say it.

Having said what he wanted to, it was much easier to say more things that he wasn't normally comfortable with. "You know… I used to think I needed love to be happy. Of course, i was thinking of a different kind of love at the time, but still... I didn't think this kind of love could possibly work for me." He hugged her tightly. "I really can never say thank you enough, Frisk."

She looked up at him and giggled happily. "Neither can I!"

* * *

 **"Are you okay?"**

 **It's a simple question, but it can be asked in many ways, has many meanings, and has a nearly limitless list of possible answers.**

 **I hope you all have a very good day, and a great next week.**

 **And don't worry, I'll post the next chapter as soon as it's done to make up for this post.**

 **(Also was going to have like two more scenes but ran out of time. Will prob add them later)**


	21. A New Cafe

**And of course I didn't get this done quickly at all because I don't even have time to write for like half the week. Man I'm tired of saying sorry all the time for being slow.**

" **Then stop saying sorry."**

 **BUT I FEEL BAD IF I DON'T.**

 **I hope you enjoy this one chapter break from crazy. (Warning: The definition of 'crazy' may vary from person to person)**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.21

* * *

The kind soul's attention was pulled away from the TV by the sound of a door unlocking. He turned his head and soon smiled when Frisk reentered and locked the door behind her.

"You're back! Finally!" He cheered lightly.

"I'm back! Finally!" She cheered before running over and jumping to him.

"Oof!" He said reflexively as the child landed on him before hugging him tightly. He smiled and soon hugged her back just as strongly. "Did you have fun?"

"Yep! Oh, and Kid said to say hi!" Frisk remembered.

"Is he doing alright?" AJ asked.

"Yeah! The other kids are actually being pretty nice to him now." She answered.

"They better be." The boy said in response.

"Did you do alright while I was gone?" The girl asked with a worried look.

"Of course, Frisk, you know me." He responded with a smile.

"Exactly, that's why I worry." She commented. Her eyes lit up with an idea. "One more hug to make sure you're okay!" She exclaimed before tightly wrapping her arms around his neck again. He chuckled and didn't hesitate to hug her back. "Again, I'm really sorry for leaving, but they hadn't asked for me to come over in awhile."

"I know, it's fine." He said understandingly. "It was actually kind of nice to be alone for a bit and be able to do what I want."

"Really? Being alone is… nice?" Frisk asked, confused.

He answered with a nod. "Yeah. There's a difference between being alone, and being lonely, and like I said, sometimes being alone is a good thing. You get some privacy."

She finally got off of him and stood up. "Sooo do you want some more privacy, or do you wanna get back to our worlds?" The girl asked.

"Neither, actually. As crazy as it sounds, I actually would like to go out and visit a certain place." AJ said cryptically.

"Really? _You_ actually want to go somewhere?" Frisk asked with a smirk.

" _Yes_ , I still intend to spend every day like it's my last until the mages come along. With that said, there's a place I want to check out while I still have the freedom to do so." The teen explained.

"What is it?" She asked.

"No spoilers. I'll tell you when we get there." He responded, and he smirked when she pouted at him.

* * *

"And here we are!" AJ exclaimed as they stood at the corner of a busy four way intersection. Specifically they were standing before a store at this particular corner of the intersecting roads.

The child caught a whiff of something in the air. "Wait… I know that smell!" She realized.

"Yep! Smells great even from out here!" The boy noted with a smile.

Some other people that were walking by were clearly interested in the store. You could tell that a few were debating what to do. There _were_ monsters in there, you could tell just looking through the large windows, _but_ whatever was being made in there smelled amazing.

Our two humans had no problem entering the large corner store.

(sans. – Undertale OST)

"Hi everyone!" Frisk greeted cheerfully.

All occupants of the store turned to the duo, and the monsters were quick to greet them back and wave to them. The few humans in the store watched with varied expressions. Some were excited to see them, some were curious, a few pretended not to care. A familiar purple bunny wearing an apron noticed the newcomers and waved to them from behind the large counter at the back.

AJ blushed and sighed in annoyance as he pulled his hood further down to hide himself. "Why do you do this to me?..." He complained.

The inside of the store was as wide as Grillby's, though not quite as long. Despite that, the sides of the store are lined with more tables and seats then you'll find at Grillby's. Just like in her shop, the lighting of the store was purely orange, giving a very unique vibe to the place.

The younger human giggled in amusement before the two walked towards the front counter. Recognizing the humans were doing other things, the monsters went back to their own conversations and the café's friendly, but not exactly quiet, atmosphere came out front and center.

"Hey there, humans!" The rabbit monster greeted. "Nice to see you finally visit!"

"Nice to see you finally set up shop up here!" The teen said in response.

"Yeah, well, it took a bit of convincing to get the guy selling the place to hand it over. He didn't have much of a problem with monsters, but he didn't think a monster could run a place up here. I made him a cinna-bun, and he said 'Man! These are so good, no one in their right mind would turn down a place cooking these up! You got a deal, lady!', and here I am." The monster woman explained, resting an arm on the counter with a smile.

"Exactly what I thought." The boy said, agreeing with the man.

"It smells _amazing_ in here!" Frisk exclaimed.

"It's no wonder everyone caught on to the place so quick." AJ commented with a chuckle.

The shopkeeper chuckled as well. "I've already noticed a few people just sitting around and talking, even though they finished eating awhile ago."

"Well who would want to leave a place that smells this good!?" The child exclaimed.

The rabbit monster chuckled again. "I'm guessing you two didn't come here just to see me, though, right?"

"Well why would you come to a new café like this if you aren't gonna see what they have to offer?" The boy asked rhetorically before checking his pocket. "I made sure to bring money, so we will take two cinnamon buns, please."

"Alright then." The woman said before heading into a back room. "I'll handle these next few. You watch the front, alright?"

"Will do!" Someone said before they stepped from the back room and up to the counter. Their eyes widened at the sight of the two. "O-Oh my gosh! I-It's really you! Frisk and AJ, right!?" Said the thinner female rabbit monster.

"Oh! Hi there!" Frisk greeted.

"Um… yeah." AJ answered with an embarrassed chuckle. They'd both been through this plenty of times with other monsters, and he could tell where this was going.

"Thank you so much for freeing us! It is a shame that humans don't seem to care much for an inn, but I'm alright with helping my sister run this place instead! I'm sure you've probably heard this before, but I've never been able to say it myself, so… thank you, both of you." The monster said with a light smile.

"You're welcome!" The younger human responded cheerfully.

The taller one nodded. "You deserved it."

Since they would have to wait a few minutes for their food, the two humans found an empty table to the left from when you walk in and sat down. Almost immediately, the boy found his hood pulled down by someone seated behind him. He looked up and found someone resting their head on the back of the boundary between the tables and staring down at him.

"Hey there, humans!" Bratty greeted.

"Catty and Bratty in the house! Remember us!?" Catty asked, appearing next to her friend.

"Um… yeah, vaguely." AJ answered.

"What!? Oh come on! We were such an important part of your adventure!" Catty whined.

"Not… really." The boy pointed out hesitantly.

"Aww…" The feline monster deflated.

"So, like, what are you two doing here?" Bratty asked casually.

"Well doing the same thing you guys are doing, right?" Frisk asked.

Bratty laughed a bit at that. "Oh that's cute. Frisk, you must have us confused with some _other_ amazing duo. We sell stuff! We don't time to _buy_ anything!"

"We're still trying to find the right creepy alley to set up shop!" Catty spoke.

"Still!?" The younger human asked, surprised.

"Yeah! Even after two months it's, like, really hard to find a nice creepy alley on the surface!" Catty answered.

"None of them have the right smell." Bratty commented with a look of slight disgust.

Catty nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and if your alley doesn't have the right smell, you do _not_ want to set up shop there!"

"Yeah." Bratty agreed. "Definitely."

"Never!" Catty stressed.

"You _gotta_ have the right smell." Bratty added.

"It brings good luck!" Catty said with finality.

The two humans were silent for a few seconds as they didn't really know how to respond to that. They both eventually settled for nodding and agreeing with them.

"Mhm." Frisk hummed.

"Sure, makes sense." AJ said.

Their rescue from weird came in the form of none other than Papyrus, walking into the shop with a large batch of human children clustered around him. The kids looked around with mostly curiosity at the place they were now in and the people that were in it. A few were a bit scared, but it seemed to be because they were shy, not that they were afraid of all the monsters. Meanwhile, the parents of nearly all those children were standing outside the store, shocked at the sudden detour into the unfamiliar place.

The tall skeleton scanned the area with a curious look. "HMM… INTERESTING. THIS PLACE SEEMS SIMILAR TO GRILLBY'S… AND YET IT IS MUCH BETTER! WONDERFUL! THIS STORE MEETS MY STANDARDS!" Papyrus exclaimed and gave a thumbs up to the lady at the counter on the other side of the room.

The rabbit monster gave a bit of an awkward smile. "Well… that's great! I'm sure my sister will be glad to hear that!" She said back.

"Hi, Papyrus!" Frisk greeted and waved to their friend.

The skeleton turned and gasped in surprise before smiling brightly and waving back. "HELLO THERE, FRISK!" He approached their table and the young ones around him followed excitedly when they realized who he was talking to. "HELLO TO YOU AS WELL, AJ!"

Two parents were leaning into the store and desperately whispering for their children to come back while they looked around at the monsters fearfully. Their kids were too excited and curious to hear them.

"Heyo. See you still have loyal fans following you around." AJ pointed out with an amused smile.

One adult snuck in and picked up their kid before running away. The child could be heard complaining as they left.

"THESE HUMAN CHILDREN ARE JUST SUCH A JOY TO BE AROUND! I AM SO GLAD THAT THEIR PARENTS ALLOW US TO GO ON OUR ADVENTURES!" Papyrus said in response.

The teen glanced out the windows of the café. "Well uh, those parents look pretty worried about you being in here, so you might wanna get going." He pointed out.

"THEY HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT! I PROMISED THEM THAT I WOULD KEEP THEIR CHILDREN SAFE!" The skeleton said as he struck a dramatic pose. "BESIDES, LOOK AT ALL THESE MONSTERS AROUND US!? WE ARE PERFECTLY SAFE HERE!"

"Papyrus, that's not the point." AJ pointed out.

"Pap, you know that a lot of humans don't trust monsters, right?" Frisk asked hesitantly.

The skeleton let out a sad sigh, somehow. "YES, SANS EXPLAINED THAT TO ME. BUT! THAT IS PART OF WHY I DO THIS, YOU SEE!? I'M SHOWING EVERYONE THAT MONSTERS CAN BE TRUSTED, EVEN WITH CHILDREN! I WILL MAKE SURE THAT NO ONE IS HURT HERE!"

On cue, the boy that had climbed up Papyrus's back fell and landed on another kid.

"OH DEAR…" Papyrus said as he turned around and saw a boy and girl on the floor, writhing in pain. The boy was clutching the back of his head, and the girl had her hands against her forehead. "ARE YOU TWO ALRIGHT?"

"Uh… h-hey, maybe I can help." The teen hesitantly spoke up. He held up both his hands and used his magic to make them start producing green mist. "Here, bring them over here."

"CAN YOU WALK, HUMAN?" The skeleton asked the girl, to which she nodded hesitantly. He pulled her up and helped her the few steps over to the tall human.

A few other kids had actually helped the boy walk over, which impressed the teen.

"Alright, just hold still." AJ said as he held one hand to the girl's forehead and the other to the back of the boy's head. He held his hand there for a few moments before speaking. "Does that feel any better?"

"Y-yeah, a little…" The girl answered hesitantly.

"Mhm." The boy hummed and affirmative.

The teen smiled a bit and let out a small sigh of relief. "Good." The parents of these children had come in to watch what was happening, and after a short while, the kids no longer felt any pain.

"Did that… actually help them?" One of the adults asked, surprised.

The boy turned and nodded. "Yeah, it… it doesn't hurt anymore." He said before turning to the girl shyly. "Sorry for falling on you."

"It's okay." The girl said before holding out a hand for the boy. After they shook hands, the girl turned to AJ with a bright smile. "I hope I get green magic like you did! I want to help people, too!"

The teen let out a light chuckle. "Well, I hope you do too then!"

The smell of cinnamon from heaven became particularly strong all of the sudden, and the group turned to see the owner of the shop/café approaching with a tray holding a pair of cinnamon buns.

"Hello there, Papyrus!" The rabbit monster greeted. "Good to see you, as well as all of your little… friends here." She gained an amused smile at the looks of wonder and curiosity on the kids' faces as they stared up at her.

"You look really soft!" One of the kids exclaimed.

"Can I touch your fur!?" Another asked excitedly, and most of the other kids exclaimed the same wish.

She chuckled. "Sorry, kids, but we'd have to make sure you're parents are okay with that, first." She responded as she turned and took the last few steps over to the table that the Dreemurr's were seated at. "Here you go."

"Thank you!"" They both said as they eagerly grabbed their food.

The monster woman looked at them with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

AJ noticed her look. "What?" He asked with an annoyed tone and a smile he couldn't hold back.

"You two keep saying you aren't siblings, and I just have a hard time believing that." She answered.

"We _aren't_. How many times do I have to say it?" He responded before taking a bite out of his food and getting the same taste of heaven that he expects from these by now.

"I KNEW I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE TO NOTICE IT! THEY ARE CLEARLY MUCH ALIKE!" Papyrus said.

"We have brown hair, that's it." The teen pointed out.

"Mhm." The monster woman hummed, clearly seeing more than he does. She finally turned to acknowledge the upset children who were still begging to touch her fur, despite the skeleton's attempts to make them quiet down.

"Our parents are right there! Go ask them!" One of the kids said, and all the other agreed.

Those very parents were all finally coming in to take their children away, both so they were out of danger, and so they would stop bothering everyone. Now that the kids had spoken, the adult humans were now on the spot.

"Well? Do you mind?" The rabbit monster asked.

"N-Not really." One man spoke after a moment. "That is, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind." A woman answered.

"No problem for me." Another man spoke.

"Honey!" The woman next to him whispered angrily. "You can't let him touch that thing!" The woman turned back with a shocked look and saw the humanoid rabbit standing in front of them with an arm extended to her.

"Hi, there. I'm Sarah." The monster greeted.

The woman continued to stare with wide eyes. "Well?" Her husband spoke with a grin as he pat her on the back. She hesitantly extended her hand out and grasped the hand of the monster.

"…I-I'm… M-Madison." The human said.

"Well, Madison, how'd you like some food? You look like you could use some." Sarah suggested.

"I am pretty hungry, actually." The husband said with a smile.

"Um, w-" Madison shook her head. "What do you serve here?" She asked.

The monster pointed outside casually. "Did you miss the sign outside? 'Sarah's Cinnamon Buns'." She answered. "Oh, right! By the way everyone, I changed my name to Sarah awhile after we came up to the surface! Just in case you didn't know." She said to the entire café.

"What!?"

"Really!?"

A few monsters expressed how surprised they were by this news, while others were just now noticing that they didn't know her name anyway.

"WHAT WAS YOUR NAME BEFORE, THEN?" Papyrus asked.

Sarah started sweating. "Not important." She answered before turning to the two adults she was talking to previously. "Just sit down somewhere. I'll get to making some cinna-buns for you in a few." She then turned back to the anxious children. "Alright, I know how to deal with all of you. Line up so I can shake your hands."

The children cheered and began fumbling around as they attempted to form a line. Once they did they eagerly stepped forward in order to shake hands with the rabbit woman. They all politely said "Hi" or "Hello" as they did so.

"I didn't expect this from you." AJ commented, a bit surprised.

"I'm no fool. If we want the humans to like us and trust us, we can't just sit around for months waiting for it to happen." Sarah responded to him while continuing to greet each kid.

He nodded. "Fair enough."

Once the shopkeep had shook hands with the kids, she turned to their parents. "Sorry, but there isn't enough seats left for all of you, so you'll have to just come by another time."

"YES, IT IS ABOUT TIME FOR US TO TAKE TODAY'S ADVENTURE ELSEWHERE. THIS WAS DEFINITELY A WORTHWHILE DETOUR THOUGH!" Papyrus said. "EVERYONE, SAY GOODBYE TO MISS SARAH!"

"Bye Miss Sarah!" The children all said and waved goodbye.

The skeleton quickly leaned over to the seated humans and whispered to them. "I CAN SEE WHY SHE NEVER TOLD US HER ORIGINAL NAME. WHAT KIND OF CRUEL PARENTS WOULD NAME THEIR CHILD 'NOT IMPORTANT'?"

The teen sighed while Frisk laughed and facepalmed. "Papyrus, that isn't what she… nevermind."

"WELL, FAREWELL HUMANS! HAVE A GOOD DAY!" Papy said before turning to walk away.

"You too." AJ said.

"Bye, Papyrus!" The younger Dreemurr said with a wave as Papyrus's party exited the café.

A human at the opposite end of the shop hit the record button on his phone. "Did you get all that?" The girl seated across from him asked.

"Yep." He answered.

"Good! If that lady is gonna make everyone such good food, she deserves to have people see how nice she is!" She exclaimed.

"Oh come on. People post every little video and picture they get of the monsters. No one would see this even if I did post it." He said with certainty.

"Oh you come on! I bet you ten bucks you'll go viral!" She said.

"Ten, huh? Deal." He said with a smirk.

* * *

…

 **I just woke up tired and angry so I honestly don't have much to say right now, sorry.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I hope you're having a better day than I am.**

 **(I can't predict the future, but the next few chapters will likely have one clear, AU focused topic. They might be shorter because of that, but as usual, I really have no clue what I'm going to do…)**


	22. The Loud One

**Here we go. Time to just jump right into it for awhile.**

 **Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.22

* * *

The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was what he was staring at, stone. He then noticed he was also staring at his feet, which were standing on the smooth stone. This was followed by him noticing his green soul floating in front of his chest. Then he realized how he felt. His head was tilted down towards the ground as he was standing up straight. He finally tilted his head up to look straight ahead.

That was when he noticed the drops of water slowly floating by in front of him.

His eyes widened before he turned to take in his surroundings. As far as he could tell, he was on a small flat disk of smooth stone about twelve feet in diameter. There was a small groove through the edge of the entire circle that was filled with water, and drops of that water were floating _up_ into the sky.

And as far as he could tell, this disk was floating in a very cloudy sky.

Despite the situation, he felt a strange tranquility about the area, and he was able to look around calmly, although still a bit in awe. He walked closer to the edges and dared to gaze between the water drops to see how far up they were. When he looked down, all he could see was clouds, and he honestly preferred that over seeing the ground and knowing how high up he really was. He walked back to the center of the area and sat down, deciding he should just enjoy the calm and peaceful area. It of course took him only seconds to begin admiring the drops of water that seemed to enjoy defying gravity so much. Eventually he decided to just watch a single drop go on its journey until he couldn't see it anymore. And then his eyes widened as much as they possibly could when he looked straight up.

He was looking at the ground.

There was a planet in the far distance, though the clouds made it so he could only see a small portion of it, the part directly below him. He stood up and the fact that he was upside down barely registered in his head. He suddenly felt a strong urge and reached out towards the planet below, and as he did so he was engulfed in white light.

* * *

"Oh no you don't!" Sans exclaimed.

"No! It's mine!" AJ shouted.

"Oh no!" Frisk shouted in a panic.

"No! Come on, dude!" Josh said to his character on the screen, trying to encourage him.

"Hahaha!" The older teen laughed victoriously. His character leapt into the air before shooting down a massive laser. The others shouted fearfully and tried to run from the laser, but it eventually caught up to them and knocked them all off the map.

"Damn, dude! You wiped us out!" The younger teen exclaimed. "Sorry." He said immediately after. He'd only been over a few times and personally felt it wasn't long enough to start being so loud yet.

"Well, I'm out." Sans commented, setting his controller down. "Good luck, guys." He said to the younger humans.

"Hey, this is a free-for-all, remember?" AJ pointed out before Josh and Frisk's characters attacked his. "Alright then!" He gladly accepted the challenge, and he heard dramatic music playing in his head to match the scene. He held his own at first in the 2v1. Blocking and dodging at the right time, counter attacking when there was an opening on one of them. He came to a full stop when he realized the music in his head wasn't actually in his head. "Oh geez!" He exclaimed as he quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket before he missed the call. "Yeah, Alphys?"

"A-AJ, uh, I actually _don't_ mean to sound so dramatic… but I think it's time." The lizard monster spoke.

The boy sighed. "Are you sure?"

"I already got three separate calls about humans who think they've got magic now, and I'm pretty sure the call I'm getting right now is another one, so, yeah." Alphys answered.

"Alright, can we like… have them come in one at a time or something? I'd rather start this slow." The human asked.

"Do you remember how long it took you to help Josh learn his magic? No, that would take too long." The monster answered. "Geez, is that a fifth one!?"

"Yeah, I know, still. Can we like… have them come in an hour apart, so I can get started on each person at least? Or like a half hour?" AJ asked hopefully.

"Hmm… I think I could manage a half hour. I'll start responding to all these calls and giving them their time to meet you. You've got a half hour to get to the dojo though." Alphys said.

"Alright." The older teen said before hanging up with another sigh. "Well, in case it wasn't obvious, there are more mages now, and we need to get ready to go right now."

"Can I come with?" Josh requested as everyone stood up.

"Why?" AJ asked, surprised the other teen was asking this.

"I wanna see this too." The boy answered like it was obvious. "Why are you so surprised? I have magic, of course I'm interested in seeing more of it."

The taller human nodded. "Fair enough."

"Sorry, sans. We'll play again some other day." Frisk said sadly.

"You don't _have_ to come with, you know." The oldest human pointed out to her.

"It's alright, kid. It was fun." Sans said before holding out his arms for a hug.

The girl smiled and slowly walked up and hugged him.

He could feel that she was tense. "Kid-"

"I know." She cut him off. "I know you'd never hurt me. …I can't help it…"

He sighed. He'd said sorry before, so he wouldn't bother saying it again. "Well, see ya later." He said after they ended their hug.

AJ poked his head around the corner. "Frisk, come on, we gotta hurry."

"Hey good luck with that those new mages, bud." Sans said to the teen.

"Thanks." He boy responded.

* * *

Toriel once again decided to stay out of the way while they helped the new mage. Her children found it unnecessary and tried to get her to join them, but she insisted that she didn't want to get in the way, so they hesitantly conceded.

Josh was currently leaning against the wall and admiring the décor, Frisk was sitting next to her bestie, who was sitting in the middle of the room and staring at his phone.

"I honestly shouldn't be surprised that the first new mage for the beginning of the mage swarm _is freaking late_." AJ deadpanned.

"They're only five minutes late though." The girl pointed out, looking over his shoulder.

"I just figured that people would want to get control of their magic quickly and they wouldn't be late." The oldest human explained before resting his head in his hand. "Honestly though, it was kind of a stupid expectation for me to have."

Just after he said that, someone approached the door and entered. They shook their head before looking at them all with a confident smile. "Sorry I'm a bit late. Had to deal with some thugs on the way here." They bragged.

They were a girl, about fifteen, but they also clearly hadn't had their growth spurt yet. Their hair was frizzy, and a natural red. Her eyes were bright green, and her skin showed she spent a lot of time in the sun. Her clothes consisted of a dirty red-orange tank top and brown shorts.

Josh chuckled. "So if I see some soulless husks out there, I'll know for sure it was you this time." He commented.

The new girl's eyes widened as she seemed to just notice his presence. Her face contorted in anger. "Wwwwhy is _he_ here!?" She shouted as she pointed at him.

"Honestly, Alex, I didn't know you were gonna be here." The teal soul said, raising his hands in surrender. After a moment, he lowered his arms again and smirked. "If I had, I would have brought my ginger repellent."

Alex's eyes widened in unspoken rage that quickly became spoken as she rushed him at full speed. "RRRAAAAGH! I'M GONNA KILL YOU YOU PIECE OF-" She was cut off when her face smashed into a green wall that appeared between them.

The Dreemurrs stared with wide eyes and blinked twice before the older one spoke up. "Alright, first off, try to swear in front of Frisk again and I'll kick you out. Second… So, you two know each other!" He noticed, clapping his hands together with a fake smile.

Josh relaxed from his ready-to-dodge stance. "Sorry. I'm normally better, but I hadn't seen her in awhile."

The new mage groaned in pain before sitting up and rubbing her nose. "Ugh, I'd seen enough of you." She responded. "The first new mage! Whooooa!" She said sarcastically. "Get over yourself…"

"I figured you were at least capable of realizing that I'm _not_ the media." Josh responded condescendingly. "I don't control how they do things or how much they do a story. And it's not like the first new mage _isn't_ a big deal! It kinda is! All this magic is a really big deal!"

"Oh please, you're nothing special!" Alex responded.

"I never said I was, fool!" The teal soul shouted.

"Wow, first one and this is already going so well…" AJ commented to Frisk, who looked on sadly as the two argued. "So, you gonna try and get them to calm down?"

"Huh?" The child responded, confused.

"Well I just figured you don't want people being mean and so I was gonna let you jump in and tell them to stop arguing." The oldest teen explained.

Frisk looked back at the two younger teens. "Um… I don't really know what to say right now… And I think they're too angry to listen right now."

"Alright then. Cover your ears for a sec." He requested. " _HEY_!" He shouted, causing them to go silent as they turned to him. "I'd really like to get started, so if you two could stop, that'd be great. _Also_ , Josh, it'd be great if you didn't go being equally antagonizing. Actually, what they hell!? How am I supposed to figure you out if you keep acting differently in certain situations!?" He asked, annoyed.

"Oh! Well, I know myself pretty well, let me simplify it." Josh started. "I'm generally calm…"

"Annoying…" Alex muttered.

"Always thinking before I act…"

"Slow…"

"Try not to get people mad if I don't need to…"

"Stupid…"

"And always patient…"

"And always a pain…"

"Then all that goes out the window with this punk." Josh finished, pointing to the freckled one.

"You're the punk!" She shouted angrily as she pointed at him.

"She's impatient, stubborn, loud…" The teal soul listed off.

"Fast, strong, and more fun than you!" Alex shouted, cutting him off.

"I can't stand her. She's just the complete opposite of me." The boy explained with an annoyed tone.

"So rather than stay away from the person you can never get along with, you both antagonize each other." AJ noted before sighing and facepalming. "I don't have time for this. Josh, get out."

"What!?" The boy exclaimed as Alex started laughing.

"I have a new mage to deal with and I'm never gonna get anywhere with her while you're around. Toriel can take you wherever you want, just anywhere but here, I need to get started now."

The patient soul huffed and put his hands in his pockets. "Fine… that's fair." He said as he left the building.

"HAHAHA! See ya later, Joshy! HAHAHAHA!" Alex laughed on for a few moments longer as the older teen approached them. "Smart move, getting rid of him! I like you, whatsyourname!" They said with a smile as they looked up at him.

"And I don't like you, at all." The older teen said simply, and the girl lost her smile. "Your attitude and behavior hint at so many things I don't want to deal with, so you're gonna do us all a favor. You're gonna shut up, listen, and take this seriously."

"Or what?" She asked.

"There is no 'or what'. I'm not giving you any other option." AJ answered.

"Grrr… What's your problem!?" Alex asked.

"My problem is you're just the kind of person that would abuse any power given to them." He answered.

"Oh, so you think you know me, huh!?" She asked, annoyed.

"I know enough." He responded with a deep frown. "Now let's get started, we're wasting time."

"I saw the video with you and Josh already, so you don't have to repeat all that crap again." The older girl commented.

"Yes, but you haven't experienced it all yourself yet." The older teen responded.

"The video was enough, seriously." Alex said with an annoyed tone as she looked up at him.

AJ sat down in front of her. "No, that's not how soul magic works. You need to feel it yourself, and pay attention." He held out his hand towards her, and green flame coated his hand. She leaned away and gave his hand a weird look. "This is magic, and you need to get used to it, now touch it." He requested.

The short teen looked hesitant for only a moment longer before thrusting her hand into the flames. Her eyes widened just a bit and she stared at her own hand as she moved it around in the magical fire.

"And that is soul flame, mine anyway." The boy stated. Alex's hand lingered a moment longer after the flames were gone before she noticed that and quickly retracted her hand. "And my goal here is simply to teach everyone how to do that so that they'll be able to control their soul energy themselves."

"Yeah, that's great, get on with it then!" Alex demanded.

AJ's eyebrows rose and he smiled in amusement. "Well, first off, you _need_ to relax. I don't care how badly you want to learn, you can't be antsy. You have to be calm to focus on what you're doing when you use magic."

"Yeah, I'm supposed to pull energy out of my soul now, aren't I?" The other teen guessed.

"Yep! That's the first step. So, take a deep breath, relax, and focus on your soul and drawing energy from it. Take it slow and just learn to bring the energy out, you don't need to start doing anything with it yet." The kind soul requested. He noticed someone pass by the door to the dojo, which reminded him of a detail he figured he should tell her about. "You're not the only new mage though, there are already quite a few that are coming in today alone, and they're each coming a half hour apart. So, over these next however many hours, you're gonna want to get used to drowning out everyone else, cause I'm gonna have to explain all this _so_ many times." And with that he finally went silent.

He was surprised to hear this new mage be quiet as well, after letting out a few annoyed grunts. This was the kind of thing everyone would have to deal with, sitting there and focusing on the soul energy. Using soul magic itself is pretty easy, once you know how to do it. Learning to feel for, take hold of, and move the energy, however, takes hours. Those hours are mostly spent entirely focused on trying to control that energy, so the time passes pretty quickly.

AJ turned and noticed Frisk was admiring her own soul flame. She looked up at him with a smile, and he walked over to her and crouched so he could whisper to her. "Why are you here, anyway?" He asked.

She leaned close to whisper back. "Well, I know you don't like people very much, but I know you're gonna have to talk to a lot of people here, so I thought that I should be here with you in case you need me."

The boy chuckled quietly. "Well thank you. I'm sure I will need you, eventually."

Alex hadn't been sitting there for long before he noticed someone at the door again. He saw a woman more than twice his age leaning over and peeking through the window before going back out of sight. He raised an eyebrow and put his hands to his hips as he stared at the glass door, waiting for whoever it was to try peeking again. Instead of peeking, the brunette woman opened the door and entered, immediately followed by a dark haired man that looked to be around her age as well.

The man and woman walked a few steps before stopping. The woman's expression was a mix of confusion, embarrassment, and worry. "Is this the place where people with magical powers are supposed to go?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yep." AJ answered.

"And are you the one that teaches people to use magic?" The man asked.

"I'm the one that's had magic the longest, so yeah." The teen answered.

"Our son, Peter, he…" The man started before looking behind him. A small boy with black hair peeked around his leg. He looked no older than eight. "He came up to us, talking about a colored mist coming out of his hand. He was shaking, he was so terrified."

"The woman on the phone told us to come here. You can help my son, right?" The woman asked.

AJ nodded. "Yes, I can teach him to control his soul energy and how to use to create magic. But, from there he will need to figure out what he can do with it on his own, and it will be your responsibility to teach him to be responsible with his magic."

"We will, just please help him!" The mother begged.

* * *

The kind soul noticed something late into the day that he felt like posting. "So, for those who didn't know already from the people posting about how they think they have magic and others talking about me helping them learn to control it, yes, lots of people are becoming mages now. I was struck with a realization when there was about fifteen people in the room. The ones that had come in earlier had already learned and were now showing off their soul flames. And at the sight of all those beautiful and vibrant colors in front of me, I realized that this world just became a lot more colorful. I look forward to seeing more of that in normal life."

* * *

 **I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do for the next few chapters. I have a few conflicting ideas and I can only do one. With that said, the idea I'm likely going to go with means that those next chapters are going to be very short and simple, unless I somehow come up with decent bonus scenes and interactions for each one, which I almost certainly won't. It's clear to me now that short chapters doesn't mean I'll write them quick, but I figured you guys should know that so at least you don't expect a large chapter and get a small one.**

 **Well, I hope you all have a good day, and a great week!**


	23. The Passionate One

**Mostly posting this so you guys know I'm not dead.**

 **Not gonna lie, I finally got a PC that could play video games, so I've been doing that for a few weeks. Not only is that all I want to do, but PC gaming hurts my hands and makes it hard to write even if I want to. Sorry…**

 **Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.23

* * *

"…So I'd like to say that magic is an outdoor activity, but then you'd just end up breaking someone _else's_ lawn… car… house…" AJ said, and the ones who were listening laughed at that. The ones that weren't listening were still deep in focus at some stage of the process of learning to control soul energy. He swapped his smile for a more serious look. "We've barely started with all this, so we don't know what all mages can do, but the super strength is dangerous enough. So I'm gonna keep telling it to everyone who comes in here, even if I just become a broken record. Take magic seriously, alright?" He requested, and everyone nodded. "If _any_ mage abuses their power, it's not hard to see where this'll go. People will fear mages, hate them even. If you all can prove that you can be responsible with the power you have though, that won't be as much of a problem.

There are many ways to use magic, but laws are still laws. Doesn't matter if you hurt someone with or without magic, that's still assault. You only use it for self-defense, or making life more convenient." He let his serious side drop away again for a moment. "Though showing off with it is alright too." And then it was back again. "What's important is you're not breaking things or hurting people with it. You know, those things you aren't supposed to do anyway?" He asked rhetorically. "Point is, be careful with your magic. Great power, great responsibility." He let out a sigh and relaxed slightly. He switched from serious mode to tutor mode. "Alright, I've spent long enough with that, let's get to the part you all came here for…"

It had only been a day since the new mages started coming in, and things had changed quickly in quite a few ways. For the first day, people came in one at a time, each getting thirty minutes of attention from the green soul until the next person come in. Then the mage would intermittently come out of their focused state to ask what they need to do next. By the end of the day there were at least twenty people in the small dojo, and most of them had learned to create their basic soul flame by then.

As expected, most that came in were anywhere from scared to terrified of their strange new powers. It didn't matter who they were. Some were kids, some were adults, some feared what they didn't understand, some feared what their religious flock would think of this 'magic'. One was distraught simply because they were convinced that people did not have 'souls', and they weren't doing well with evidence that went against their beliefs. There were two from that day that weren't afraid, simply excited to learn. There was an older gentlemen who doubted the boy, but it seemed to the teen that he simply didn't like being taught by someone younger than him.

By the end nearly all of them were surprised how easy (if time consuming) it was to learn. The teen of course knew this, but he also knew he wasn't really here for just that. He was here to make sure people understand not to abuse their power, and also just as a place of safety. It's easier for people who are afraid if someone like him is there. Someone who is totally calm and knows what they're doing, more or less. He is here to teach, and to calm people.

Then at the start of day two, Alphys made it clear that the amount of mages was increasing. By then he was a bit more confident with dealing with people though, so he didn't mind a change in plans. Now instead of taking in one person every thirty minutes, he takes a group every thirty minutes. Sometimes the groups are of three, sometimes five. The room became filled with people much more quickly, but they hadn't hit their limit yet, thankfully.

It was only the second day and he was already exhausted. Thanks to the constant flow of mages, he had virtually no breaks. He was spending the entire day talking to people, standing in front of a growing number of people sitting in front of him, all of them looking up at him. It wasn't all bad, he made some jokes, and people laughed. Already he was seeing a larger percentage was excited to learn, and it showed on their faces. It was easier to look at people when they were smiling back at you, but the numbers were still more than he was used to.

But at least he was never really alone. There was always a certain child sitting off to the side behind him. He had yet to have enough of a break to talk to her, but he appreciated her presence and encouraging smiles anyway. He was surprised she was willing to stick around here for so long, but he supposed this was basically why she was here, to support him.

"…and just pull on it enough to draw it out, get used to that motion. You don't need to try and move it around yet, that's the next step." The boy finished and let the group focus on their task.

Just then, someone quickly opened the door and stepped inside, gasping for air. The girl looked up after a few moments and she noticed the one other person standing in the room. Her eyes widened and she gasped in awe as stars appeared in her eyes.

""Shh!"" The two Dreemurrs shushed her before she could say anything. The girl stood there silently shifting excitedly as the frowning boy walked around the seated mages and up to her.

The girl looked about seventeen and stood only a few inches shorter than him. Her hair was a light brown and tied in a long ponytail. Her eyes were a shade of blue that just about matched a clear sky. For clothes she was literally wearing a pink tracksuit.

"Oh my god it's really you!" She whispered excitedly.

"Yes, I exist, what's new!?" AJ whispered back, annoyed. "Now you better have a good reason for barging in, cause the mages in here are trying to focus!"

"I know, I know! That's why I came here!" The girl responded. "Me and the other track girls got together to practice since school's coming back in a few weeks, and at one point while we were running I started feeling funny, and then everyone freaked out and said that there was some purple stuff coming off of me, and I realized that I was getting magic powers and that I needed to head here right away so you could teach me!" She explained ecstatically. "I just didn't think I'd ever actually see you in person though! I know not everyone thinks so, but I think it's really cool that you and that girl saved all those monsters!"

"Ah, Perseverance, good for you." He paused for a moment before sighing and crossing his arms. "It's funny, I totally forgot that that was months ago… it doesn't feel like it." He smiled a bit. "We did some crazy, magic stuff that I would have never though was possible, and… now it's been months. Magic and crazy stuff is normal now. It's weird how a world changing and life changing thing like that just… happened, and then life just went back to normal, a totally changed normal but… still."

" _Oh my god you're so coooool!_ " The girl whispered.

AJ sweatdropped, his shoulders sinking. "You know, I was really hoping you _weren't_ some weird fangirl…" He deadpanned.

"What!? Nono nono no! I'm not! I swear!" She said as she frantically waved her arms in front of her.

"Mhm…" The boy hummed, unconvinced. "Well here's the thing… There's a system for setting up an appointment, which you completely ignored when you barged in here..."

"The magic just showed up now! What was I supposed to do!?" The expressive girl complained.

"So now you're going to go find a place to sit and you're gonna wait half an hour till a new group gets here. Then you'll be taught alongside them." He said before walking away.

"Aww…" The girl whined.

"That's what you get for cutting in line." The green soul said with a grin. He got back to the front and looked around at the other mages. He looked carefully at the ones that were ready and waiting, the ones that were clearly still very focused, and the few that seemed to have the hang of their part and were simply practicing. He looked to group at the front and to his right. "Alright, I think there's enough of you guys ready to continue on. Alright, so, now that you've gotten down how to make the soul energy flow at your will, it's time for the final step…"

* * *

 **And yes, like I said, the other chapters will probably be short too. All I know is to wrap up all these short chapters, there will be one (probably) much larger chapter. And after that, I have no clue where we're going!**

 **Hope you all enjoyed. If you did, I'd hope that you had followed or faved by now.**

 **Have a great day!**


	24. The Shy One

**Combine not playing as much PC with being inspired by music videos lately, and you get me writing more again. The chapter is super short, so I might as well just post it now.**

 **Here ya go.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.25

* * *

Any hopes of the amount of mages decreasing or leveling out were vanquished by the mass before him. Though the fifty people that sat before him now were just a small number compared to the population of a town like Onyx, that did not mean you would not soon see mages everywhere you went.

In fact, it seemed that after only three days there were already people from all walks of life here. He could see businessmen and woman who had just got out of a meeting before coming here. He could see a bulky construction worker covered in soot. He saw a beautiful dancer who was still wearing her red dress. He saw a homeless man seated near the back and decided it was best that no one had to pay him to teach them to control their soul magic. He even noticed that there was at least one asian, mexican, and black individual among the group. Age, social status… there seemed to be no limit to anything amongst these new mages. It was clear to the teen and to many other people who took a moment to look around when they came here, that mages would soon become a common sight no matter where you were.

He saw so many people sitting beside each other, joined together to do this one thing. The sight gave him a strange feeling. He still held hope that this power would cause people to change and become responsible, but now he felt that magic could bring people together and lead to people understanding each other. He suddenly was very hopeful that in more ways than one, this magical power of the soul would make a large number of humans become much better people.

And considering that the number of new mages seemed to just keep rising, he thought it might actually be okay to hold on to that hope. He hoped that each person that walked into the dojo would be changed for the better by this sudden change in their lives. He knew that a few would likely abuse their power, but if that meant that many more became people of integrity and maybe even kindness, than he felt that was worth it.

All these thoughts flew through his head during a period he knew would last, a period of quiet where nearly everyone was focused on their soul energy in some way. He couldn't help but smile a little, he was so surprised by the moment of relative happiness during what was proving to be another long day.

It was then that he noticed someone sitting to the far left corner in the front row. A girl with poofy, dark brown hair, blue-rimmed glasses, dark brown eyes, and a dark blue sweatshirt that was a size too big for her. She seemed to be having a very hard time focusing, but she did not look angry about it. Instead she seemed to be unable to focus because she was afraid. She kept glancing at everyone to her left, and the kind mage could tell she was shy and didn't like being around so many people.

The temptation to leave her be was definitely there. It would be much easier to leave her alone and enjoy his short moment of peace while it would last. But he knew he couldn't do that. He quietly got up and walked over to that side of the room.

He still felt that his soul trait should have been integrity. He would say it's because while he easily holds a bit of every trait, all of it comes from his integrity and logic. When it comes to kindness, it's because he knows that it is the right thing to do. But he understands it a little now, his trait is kindness because in the end, he isn't kind just because he knows it's the right thing to do, it's because he feels terrible being any less than nice to someone that he feels doesn't deserve it.

He sat down in front of the young girl, who appeared to be about fourteen. The girl realized he was sitting there and looking right at him, and she quickly looked at the ground, he body shaking slightly.

"Close your eyes." AJ said quietly.

The girl froze for a moment before doing as he said. The mage then held up his right hand and created his soul flame. He let the green flames dance for a moment before he gently settled his hand on her head. She was surprised for a moment, but soon couldn't help but relax at the feeling of such comforting warmth.

"Now just focus on finding your soul." He requested with a small smile. He kept up the flames for a few minutes until he was sure she was deep in focus. He slowly stood up and swept over the crowd to see which group was ready.

"Thank you." The girl whispered.

He just barely heard her, and he smiled as he went on with his tutoring.

* * *

 **No idea where all that came from, as usual. I do know where the different way of wording things came from though, from reading a whole damn book for a school assignment. I figured that might affect my writing. XD**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this minor distraction from whatever you were doing, and I hope you all have a very good day!**

 **Edit: Fixed accidentally putting dark brown hair twice, supposed to be hair and eyes.**


	25. Lockets

**Planned to do this chapter for awhile but I also just need dis today.**

 **Thankfully "today" passed long ago.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.25

* * *

"Good morning!" Frisk said cheerfully as she stood next to her "brother's" bed.

The teen's blankets rustled slightly before he responded with a long sigh.

The girl gave a sorry smile as she remembered that he'd lately not found mornings to be any sort of 'good'. She of course did her best to remedy that, and by that I mean she hugged him before trying to get him out of bed. "Come on, you can do this!" She said encouragingly as she pulled on his arm.

"Ugh…" He groaned before crawling out of bed.

After having breakfast and packing up all the magic food they'll need for the day, they all got in the car and Toriel began driving them towards the dojo once again.

"My jaw hurts and I haven't even had to talk yet…" The boy complained.

"Come on, AJ! You said this would make the world better, didn't you!? You can change the world if you just stay determined!" Frisk encouraged.

"She is right, my child. You will survive this." Toriel added.

"At the rate this is going though, there isn't going to be enough room for everyone today. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about that." AJ said, worried.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out!" The younger human said with certainty.

When their vehicle stopped in the parking lot, they could already see a group was standing outside the small building and waiting for them. As the hours passed by they watched the place fill up to capacity before half the day had even passed. The amount of mages in the city of Onyx continued to grow.

Just as the teen was finishing up instructions for another group of new mages, Frisk came up to him with his phone and said that Alphys had texted him. He didn't like the interruption, but assumed it was important.

"Hey, so I just had this sudden idea while I was getting more calls from new mages. I'm pretty sure you can't handle any more right now, so I've decided to push all the new groups back two hours. Enjoy your relative break!"

His eyes widened at an idea. He looked over the new soul mages as he thought over the possibility of this working. He decided he wanted the damn break.

"Alright!" He said with a clap of his hands to get people's attention. "Well, I just got a notice that no new mages are going to be coming in for the next two hours, so I'm gonna use that chance to have an actual break for the first time in forever!" He announced. "Since I'm not going to be here though, I have to ask the mages who are on the last step or have already finished it to help out everyone else with the previous steps. You guys all just learned how to do it, so it honestly should be fine. Besides, I'd say this is a nice time for all of us mages to start helping each other!" He turned to Frisk and waved her over. "Well? Come on!"

Her eyes widened with excitement. "Okay!" She jumped up and quickly ran over to the door.

"Wait, so you're just leaving us!?" A guy from the group who was just now mastering their soul flames asked.

"Oh you'll be fine! I know you guys can do this." AJ responded as he opened the door. "Sorry this came up so suddenly!" He said before walking away. Once the door closed he let out a huge sigh of relief. "Alphys, you are a saint!" He exclaimed.

"So, wait, what are we gonna do?" The child asked, confused.

"All I really want is to go to Sarah's Cinnamon Buns. After that, I don't care." The older one answered.

Frisk could not help but be excited by the chance to eat another cinnamon bun. She quickly grabbed his hand and ran in the direction of the café. "Let's go then!"

"Alright alright!" He chuckled at her excitement and followed with a smile on his face.

The parking lot where the dojo is located is along the edge of the commercial district, so it didn't take very long for the humans to walk to their favorite monster owned café (Grillby's isn't a café so it's okay to say that). When the two walked in they noticed the ratio of humans to monsters was already getting closer to half and half, although the majority of visitors were still of the monster race.

"Hi, Sarah!" Frisk greeted as the two walked up to the front desk.

"Well hey there, little one!" The rabbit woman greeted.

"Heyo." AJ greeted with a wave.

Sarah's eyebrows went up at the sight of him. "Oh, AJ! Didn't expect to see you anytime soon!" She chuckled. "It seemed like you'd be locked in that whatever-you-call-it forever!"

"Dojo, and the swarm of mages isn't ending as far as I can tell." The boy said as he stopped next to Frisk. "Alphys just managed to get me a break. I'm gonna have to head back there in awhile."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Well, how about we get you something so you can enjoy that break while you can?" The monster suggested.

"Yeah, I can't help but notice that menu back there." AJ said, pointing to the large chalkboard on the back wall.

Sarah glanced back at it for a moment. "You like it? People were confused about what we served, so finally got around to putting it all out there for them."

The younger human gasped. "Wait you have cinna-buns that are bigger than normal!?" She asked with stars in her eyes.

Sarah chuckled. "Yes. I'm guessing you want one?"

"Yes please." Frisk said with a strong nod.

"Heh. I'll have a large one too." The teen said.

"Alright! They'll be ready in a few." The rabbit monster said before heading into the back to update her sister on the orders.

The boy checked his phone as they found an empty table to sit at. "Well, we made it here within half an hour just walking, so we can spend an hour doing whatever and if we're a bit late we can always jog or sprint." He sighed and relaxed against the back of the seat. "It's so nice to not sit on the floor…"

Frisk mimicked his actions, even the sigh. "Yeah…" She agreed. They both were silent for a few as they enjoyed the moment to have proper seating and not have to do anything.

"You know, you really don't have to come suffer with me every day while I do this… magic tutoring." AJ pointed out to her.

She shook her head. "I can't take care of you if I'm not with you." She countered.

"You still go to school though." He pointed out.

"But I _have_ to go to school." She responded, crossing her arms in annoyance at that fact.

"Frisk-"

"I'd feel bad!" She interrupted. "I'd feel really bad if I left you there all by yourself for the whole day. There's no point in you doing this all alone."

"Yeah, and I feel bad having you sit there bored all day." The older one said.

To his surprise, she giggled in response. "You really were right when you said we'd have to deal with stuff like this!"

The boy sighed. "Unfortunately…"

"Well, you can't just not help mages, and I can't just leave you there, so why don't you just let me go with you?" She suggested.

He frowned for a moment before rolling his eyes and sighing. "Fine."

"Yay! Thank you!" Frisk said cheerfully.

AJ looked up in thought. "Honestly though, the dojo is at its limit… It might be time to start making some like, instructional videos people can just find on the internet any time, and just use the dojo for people who can't get quiet time."

"That's a good idea!" The girl commented. "Why didn't you just do that first?"

"Because I wouldn't have had the confidence to make a good video back then…" He hesitantly admitted. "Also the first mages were scared, they needed a person to go to. We're passed that though, and I've had to explain it a hundred times over, so I might actually be able to do it now."

"So we might get to play at home again?" Frisk asked hopefully.

"Hopefully." He responded. "I'm sure Toriel would be happy."

"And our sheep will be happy, too!" The girl exclaimed.

"Our sheep?" He asked, confused, before squinting at her. "Oh, you mean that useless sheep farm you have…"

"It's not useless! I have a plan, you'll see." The younger one said confidently.

"Even if you do make something with it, colored wool is always ugly." He pointed out.

"We'll see about that." She responded with a smile.

"Yeah, we're gonna see you were just wasting time and resources with them." He said with certainty.

"They'd be food though." She pointed out.

"They would be _but you won't kill them_." He pointed out.

"Because every time I try to they look at me and go "Bah" and then I feel bad and I can't do it!" She explained, appearing torn up at just the thought of killing them.

Eventually their food was served to them and they devoured the large cinnamon buns while talking about plans for their video game worlds that they hoped to get back to. Though considering they had finished their food awhile ago, they figured it was rude to take up space in the café just talking. They left and decided to explore the nearby shops while they still had just over a half hour before they needed to start heading back.

* * *

The child held his hand and smiled happily as they looked through the windows of the stores they walked by. Then as they passed another small shop, Frisk decided to glance through the window again, and she saw something that caught her eye. She gasped before tugging the teen's arm back towards the door to the shop.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"Look!" She said, pointing at what interested her.

He stared at the display she was pointing at and saw lots of different items, though a few items in the window kept him from seeing everything. "I repeat, what is it?" He asked, confused.

"Just come look!" She said before pulling him inside.

"Alright, alright!" He followed her over to the displays and she pointed at the items of interest.

She was pointing at a batch of heart-shaped lockets. What he couldn't help but notice was that these lockets all were one of seven colors. The child grabbed a red and a green one and held them up to him. "These are perfect for us! Can we buy them!? Please!?"

He placed a hand on her head. "You don't need to beg." He said with a smile.

They heard someone chuckle off to the side, and they turned to see a man in his forties with greying hair and a cheap brown jacket behind the counter, smiling at them. "Well, never thought I'd see you two in here."

AJ blinked twice. "Hey, I recognize you." He noticed.

"I was in that dojo a couple days ago. Pretty sure it was the first day you started teaching, actually." The man answered before holding up his hand, which soon ignited with green flames. "At first I couldn't believe I actually had magic, but then I got inspired by it. Decided to make a batch of lockets for all the new mages that we'd be seeing soon. Made sure I got all the colors."

The boy held up the locket and brought out his soul. "You even got the size right." He noticed.

"I did? Good!" The man exclaimed. "Just so you know, those things are empty. You want some pictures in them or just leave them as is?"

Frisk gasped. "You can put pictures in them!?"

"Yeah. Got the printer in the back if you wanna do that?" The shop owner said, pointing over his shoulder at the wooden door behind him.

The child's eyes lit up as she looked down at the red locket in her hands. "I know what I'm gonna do then!" She then looked up at AJ with a smirk. "I'm gonna put your picture in here!"

The boy let out a breath through his nose. "As long as I don't have to see my picture…" His eyes widened at a thought and he grabbed Frisk's shoulder as she went to walk ahead of him. "Actually, um… who's gonna wear which one?"

"Well I wear red and you wear green, right?" The younger one answered.

"Well, yeah, that would seem obvious, but if we're gonna use these to remember each other or whatever… what if you took green, and I took red?" He suggested.

"Hmm…" Frisk actually looked deep in thought, clearly considering the idea as she stared at the two lockets. She took the green one from his hand and handed him the red as she continued to stare at the small heart shaped items and debate in her head. "I don't know… I feel like we should just keep our colors… but I really like the idea of keeping a part of each other!" She said with a smile as she clutched the locket close to her for a moment. "I really don't know anymore… Why'd you have to make this so hard to choose!?" She mock whined. She shut her eyes tight as she seemed to have a strong internal struggle for a moment. "Let's do it that way!" She exclaimed.

"Do it my way? Not yours? No take backs?" AJ asked, so he'd know she was sure.

"Yes! We'll do it your way!" She answered quickly so she couldn't give herself a chance to change her mind.

"Alright then, it's settled. I get red, and you get green." The teen said, and she nodded.

"Come on back and you can choose which pictures you want to use." The man said, and the three went back into the large back room to choose pictures from their phones and have them printed out and cut to size in order to fit the small lockets.

They both had two pictures put in their lockets. Frisk's had the picture of her and AJ wearing flower crowns and doing their "Squish!" picture in the left side, and a picture of the boy standing alone and giving a small smile as he begrudgingly stood for the camera when they first moved into their new home, on the right.

AJ's had the less silly picture of him and Frisk wearing flower crowns on the right, and a close up picture of the adorable child smiling up at the camera with her eyes closed, on the left.

The two humans thanked the man and left the shop with small chains around their necks. The boy wasn't used to wearing any kind of necklace, and he kept the locket under his shirt. Frisk had never worn one either, but at the moment she preferred having it bounce around with each step she took as she left the locket out for all to see.

With less than a half hour left and them being further away from the dojo now than they were at the café, they alternated between jogging and short bursts of sprinting until they reached the familiar parking lot. Upon entering they saw a familiar teen with a striped shirt standing in front of the group of seated mages.

"Josh? What are you doing in my spot?" AJ asked, confused. He and Frisk walked around the group to the front of the room.

"Alphys told me to watch over things till you got back." Josh answered with a light grin at the sight of his friends. "I thought I was gonna have to teach some of these people myself, but by the time I got here they were all helping each other out and uh, they didn't really need me!" He said with a chuckle.

The older teen turned around with a surprised and impressed look. "You guys actually did what I said?"

A girl about his age spoke up. "Yeah, it wasn't actually that bad."

"Pretty easy actually." Another guy said.

"Quite enjoyable, actually. Everyone got along well." An older gentleman responded.

"Oh! Well, good then! That's what I was hoping for!" AJ exclaimed before turning to the teal soul. "Well thanks for watching over and all, but I'm ready to take my spot back."

"You could just go home, you know." Josh suggested. "I don't mind taking over for the rest of the day."

"No, no, this is probably going to be the last major day. I might as well see it through." The kind mage responded.

Josh shrugged. "Whatever you say, man." He walked past them and waved as he went. "Have a good one."

"You too." AJ said.

"Bye, Josh!" Frisk said and waved to him as well. She saw him turn and give a quick nod to her before walking away from the building.

* * *

The two humans were the first to walk through the door when they got back home that night. Both of them were tired and happy to finally be back in their house, one more than the other. Frisk held the door open for Toriel while AJ went and flopped onto the couch.

"Why thank you, my child!" Goat Mom said as she brought in the empty lunch bags.

"You're welcome!" Frisk responded before walking into the living room. She stared at the older human as he lay on the couch, enjoying being able to totally relax once again. After a few moments she looked down at her locket and opened it. She looked at the pictures for a moment, then back up at him, then the locket again, and she gained a big smile as she closed the locket and walked up to him.

The boy whose face was buried in a pillow turned his head slightly and noticed the girl staring at him. He tiredly smiled back at her, despite being confused. "What?" He asked curiously. The kid decided to answer him by letting out a happy cheer as she jumped on him. "Whoa! H-Hi!" He said with a surprised laugh.

"Haha!" Frisk giggled happily as she crawled onto him and hugged him tightly.

"Ah, I see." He said as he sat up on the couch, propping himself up with one arm while the other was wrapped around her. "You're in a mood, aren't you?" Her answer was to simply squeeze him tighter and bury her face in his chest as she let out another giggle. "Heh. Alright, cuddlebug." He shifted position so his feet were on the floor and he was free to wrap his arms around Frisk and rest his head on top of hers.

By the time Toriel finally got around to checking on them, they had settled into their position and were not too keen on leaving it. "Children, it is late. You both have beds waiting for you." The monster woman pointed out.

""Nooooo…"" They both whined, not moving an inch.

"Do you intend to sleep on the couch then?" Toriel asked.

"Maybe." AJ mumbled.

"Yes." Frisk said at the same time.

Toriel let out an amused chuckle. "I will bring the heated blanket down so you do not freeze then." She said before going up the stairs and coming back with a grey blanket. She plugged it into the wall and wrapped it around the two, creating a large bundle of comfy.

"Thank you…" The boy said tiredly.

"You are very welcome." Goat Mom said with a smile. "Goodnight, my child." She said before planting a kiss on his forehead, shocking him and leaving him blushing. "Goodnight, my child." She said after kissing the top of Frisk's head as well.

"G-Goodnight." The teen called back as their 'mom' walked off to her own room.

AJ relaxed as he fully took in the warmth that surrounded him, both from Frisk and from the blanket that covered them both. He was still amazed sometimes at just how happy and at peace he could be thanks to this new life of his. His feelings got the best of him as he squeezed the kid tightly. "I love you so muuuch!" He whispered happily.

* * *

 **I just need to write fluff and happiness every once in awhile…**

 **In order to live.**

 **I'm kidding.**

 **Probably.**

 **So, unless my plans change, should be one more super small chapter, and then the bigger one to wrap it up. Then, the future is undecided.**

 **I hope you all have a very good day!**


	26. The Edgy One

**Don't even know why I've decided they all need to have their own chapter, but it's kinda late to stop now, so…**

 **Let's just get it out of the way real quick.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.26

* * *

"Man, isn't this just so much easier?" AJ asked, referring to the fact that the room was barely at half capacity after half a day in comparison to being overcapacity if given the chance just yesterday. The instructional videos had been made and were simply being edited together by Alphys before they would be posted to the whole of the internet.

Silence was the only response he got, and he realized that no one else had been here before and therefore had no idea what he was talking about.

"…I'm asking the wrong people…" He mumbled. "Anyway!" He paused when he saw the door open and saw someone walk in. "Hey there! Take a seat and join us." He requested politely.

The figure stepped away from the bright lights outside, making it easier to see their features. It was an eighteen year old guy with short, ragged blond hair and dark blue eyes. He made eye contact for a moment before sitting down in the back of the group. AJ might have found that off putting if it wasn't for the many, much ruder people he'd had to deal with since he began doing this.

"Well, the only people with their eyes open right now are either new, or haven't heard an important rant yet. There is something you all _need_ to know if you are going to use magic. Even the most optimistic of you should be able to tell how people are going to treat mages. Heck, just look for anyone from Onyx talking about learning magic and you'll see the hate comments just below. Racism, prejudice, and just general hate of change and things they don't understand.

It's impossible to get rid of people hating us for being mages, but it's possible to make people look stupid for doing it. It's simple, really. Be responsible with the powers you have, and do not abuse them. It's easy for the public to hate us if any one of us assault someone, but it's much harder to do when none of us have done anything wrong. Laws are still laws, and using super strength to break a car cause you're angry is still gonna get you fined if not thrown in prison. You have to have self-control, you have to be careful, and you _have_ to learn to be responsible. It doesn't matter what you'd say to counter that, the fact is that you have a great power, and with it comes great responsibility that you need _now_." He stressed. "Now please always keep that in mind when you use your soul magic. It's important, and not just for you." He trailed off for a moment. "Let's get started."

With that said, the blond that had come in just a minute ago stood up and turned to walk away.

"Wha- Hey! Where are you going?" AJ questioned.

"I just came to hear that famous rant of yours. I already know to use my magic." And with that, they walked out.

The green soul blinked stood there dumfounded for a moment. "…Alright…" He couldn't hide the annoyance in his voice, but he had little choice but to continue with the lessons.

* * *

 **OH, I remember now! I did a chapter for each of them so it would be easier to find the information describing them when I need to! I can't believe I actually forgot that…**

 **Well, anyway, sorry for the short interruption of your day. Have a good one!**


	27. The Seven

**Now here's a chapter that I'm excited for!**

 **And it's not painfully short either! :D**

 **Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.27

* * *

Alphys was excited.

Considering what she posted about magic, and the technology she was working on to better the world, that meant that this should be something others would be excited about as well.

Today, it didn't. Today, she was just going to see for herself what most of the internet already knew.

It had been a day less than a week since the general public really started to gain magical powers, and it only took three for most of the new mages to have posted _something_ about their new abilities. By now, mages of every trait had listed off what they could do, and half of them had videoed themselves or been videoed by someone else when they used their magic. There was the small issue of conflicting reports, many done by people who aren't mages at all and are just trying to get attention.

Alphys was simply excited because she would finally get to see and document all of them herself, and finally be able to post the list of all their abilities in one place on her webpage. There would finally be a place where the true information would be available. She made many a call and eventually was able to get one person for each of the seven traits. She admitted that she didn't need Frisk, AJ, and Josh to come back to the lab, but they said they didn't mind and that they were actually excited to see the new soul magics.

The monster scientist had trouble finding a suitable candidate for each trait, though that was mostly because she was impatient and one of the qualifiers was that they needed to head over right now. At the moment, nearly everyone was present and they were just waiting for the Dreemurr kids.

Finding someone for Integrity was especially difficult, as there aren't as many of them as they are others. If Alphys hadn't once been incredibly shy (she still kind of was around people she didn't know), she would have mistaken the glasses-wearing girl's slight shivering as her simply being cold. Then again, she did have a blue sweater, so she shouldn't have been that cold anyway. Alphys was friendly and patient with her and eventually she said her name was Lilly. She was politely sitting in a chair off to the side while they waited.

Finding someone for perseverance took a bit longer as few were interested or free at the moment. Then suddenly one of her calls found someone who sounded quite enthusiastic to help her. When the girl got here, her ponytail slapped her in the face multiple times as she spun around to admire everything in the lab. She eventually calmed herself for a moment and introduced herself to Alphys, said her name was Sarah, and then got all giddy at the chance to talk face to face with such important monsters. The scientist had to talk to the others, so the girl gave up and joined Josh off to the side to talk with Undyne.

Unlike with her visit to the dojo, she was now wearing a violet long sleeve shirt with a small blue denim jacket over it along with thermal-lined jeans.

One of the doctor's early calls led to her finding a volunteer for Bravery. The girl arrived full of confidence and ready to show off what she could do. All of that was replaced with anger when she saw Josh and the two started antagonizing each other. It didn't take thirty seconds for the two to escalate to shouting and the girl, Alex, was soon trying to fight with Josh. Undyne cheered passionately as the fight started, but she noticed Alphys frowning at her, so she took the hint and broke up the fight instead of encouraging them. Alphys wondered why this human continued to wear that orange tank top when it was still winter, not even February yet.

The redhead backed off and her and Josh decided to angrily ignore each other instead. She took notice when Lilly came in and waited till the girl was quietly looking at some odd looking tech on a table to sneak up behind her. Alex eyed the girl suspiciously and raised her hand up to the top of the girl's head before moving the hand to the top of her own. "Hey." She said suddenly.

The blue soul jumped with a gasp before shyly turning around to face the other girl.

"How old are you?" Alex asked in an interrogating way.

"F-Fourteen." Lilly answered.

"WHAT!?" The brave soul shouted, scaring the poor girl. She turned to everyone while angrily pointing at the sweater wearing girl. "She's fourteen and she's TALLER THAN ME!?"

At that outburst, Josh glanced and noticed the quiet girl was in fact an inch taller than Alex. "Yeah, everyone's taller than you. This s*** ain't new." The boy commented.

Alex let out another loud, angry noise.

"Excuse me, uh, Josh…" Alphys started.

"Sorry, slipped out." The teal soul responded.

There also wasn't a terribly large number of known justice souls at the moment. Alphys had called five, one said they didn't like her, two said they were busy with police work, and one had said they were busy trying to join the police force to put their magic to good use. Thankfully, the fifth did agree to help her out, saying he had nothing better to do.

That blond was currently leaning against the wall with the hood of his brown sweatshirt up over his head. He said his name was Adam, and he didn't seem very talkative.

* * *

Everyone turned to the stairs when they heard two pairs of footsteps coming from them. The moment AJ got off the last step, he found a familiar brunette with sky blue eyes right in front of him with a bright smile.

"Woohoo! You're finally he-"

She was cut off by the ginger girl suddenly standing between them. "What took you slowpokes so LONG!?" She asked, annoyed.

The green soul leaned back slightly. "We walked." He answered like it was obvious.

"Why did you WALK!? We've all been waiting here forever!" Alex pointed out.

"Don't worry about her. The rest of us have been patiently waiting." Josh commented in the background.

"Well that's good." AJ responded as he and Frisk stepped in further.

"Hey, Alphys!" Frisk greeted as they jogged over to the monster scientist.

"Whoa!" Alphys exclaimed as the child suddenly hugged her. "Hehe… Hi, Frisk. Nice to see you again."

"Hey, punk!" The determined soul turned to the tall fish lady that was walking towards her with a big toothy grin. "I'm getting a hug too, right!?"

The kid chuckled before jumping up and hugging Undyne.

"Oh come on! What kinda hug is that!?" Undyne taunted. Frisk tensed up as she used soul magic to strengthen her arms. "Now _that's_ a hug! Ngaaahaha!"

"Don't… hug each other to death, please." AJ requested, knowing how odd that sounded.

"Don't you worry about us. We can take a beating! Right, Frisk!?" The fish warrior asked the girl.

"Yeah, cause we have Determination!" Frisk shouted passionately, pumping her fist into the air as she sat on Undyne's flexed arm.

Alphys smiled a bit at the two of them for a moment. "Alright… Frisk, AJ…" She turned and pointed at the humans one at a time. "This is Alex, Sarah, Lilly, and Adam."

The girl with the ponytail quickly walked up to the green soul again and held out her hand. "Yep! I'm Sarah! Nice to meet you! Again, actually, though I wouldn't blame you for not remembering, you've probably had to deal with lots of other people right?" She moved a lot when she talked, so he had to wait for her to stop to properly shake her hand.

"No, yeah, I remember you." He commented with a nod.

"Oh, great! Anyway, I just wanted to say that it was _so_ cool to be in that magic tutoring class thing! You were, like, really good at explaining things for each step! You made it so easy to learn how to do this!" As she said it, her hand ignited with two colors of magical fire. Purple surrounding a blue center.

He had seen all the different soul flames by now, but he couldn't help but admire the beauty of the flame now that he had this much closer look.

"Well, we might as well start with those." Alphys commented. "If all mages could please show me their Soul Flames." She requested as she grabbed a clipboard and a pen and began walking around.

AJ looked around at the other mages. "Huh, I think I vaguely recognize everyone here, actually." He noticed. He then looked down at the short redhead and frowned. He pointed at her while turning to Alphys. "But why is _she_ here?" He asked, annoyed. He also ignored Alex glaring at him.

Alphys looked at the brave mage for a moment and shrugged. "She volunteered." She listed off the two shades of red and two of green for Frisk and AJ respectively before writing down the colors for Perseverance's flames. "Do you mind if I feel the temperature of it?" She asked the older girl.

"Nope, go ahead!" Sarah answered, holding out her hand.

The monster scientist stuck her hand in the flames and hummed in thought. "It's cold." She noticed.

"Yep! It feels nice!" Sarah commented, holding her hand close for a moment.

Alphys moved on to Josh's teal and purple flames and stuck her hand in them. "Whoa!" She immediately ejected her hand and lifted up the clipboard. "No. _Patience_ is cold, Perseverance is simply cool by comparison." She moved on to the shy girl with the glasses. The girl was hesitant. "You know how to create your soul flame, right?" The lizard asked gently.

The girl nodded quietly. She raised her hand and focused on the movement of her soul energy. It only took a few moments for blue flame to come out of her hand, surrounding purple flames in the center. Though while the purple contrasted with the teal of Patience, here it complemented the blue of Integrity.

"Could you please hold it out so I could feel the temperature of it?" Alphys requested.

Lilly nodded before realizing she probably looked stupid not saying anything. "Okay." She said with a soft, quiet voice before extending her arm.

The scientist reached into the flame, and her eyebrows rose when she did. "Wow, that is the most neutral temperature I've ever felt. I can't call that warm or cold." She noted as she wrote that down. "Thank you." She said before walking over to the shortest of the bunch, excluding Frisk.

Alex held out her hand with an overly proud look and used her magic. Hers was an orange one covering a red center.

Alphys stuck her hand into the flames only to jump back and let out a shout. "AAH!"

"What?" The orange soul asked with a chuckle. "It isn't _that_ hot! Come on!" She looked around and her eye settled on Sarah. "Hey, you! Come on! Feel it!" They said with a grin.

"Oh! Um, okay." The purple soul walked up and touched the flames. She jumped back with a short squeal. "AH! No, that's, that's really hot, sorry." She said quickly.

Alex grumbled. "Ugh, oh come ON!" She turned and squinted at the kind soul. "Hey! 'AJ'! Prove you aren't a wuss and touch my flames!" They dared, holding their hand up at them with a grin.

He cocked an eyebrow at that. "I don't really care about that, but… okay?" He stuck his hand into the orange flame and resisted the strong urge to pull his hand out when he felt how hot the flames were. Once he stopped tensing up he realized the flames weren't unbearably hot, just incredibly warm and borderline hot when you first touch it. "Okay, I see what you guys mean."

Alex's eyes widened a bit as she realized that meant he was agreeing with the others. "What do you mean?" Alphys asked.

"I mean it's so close to being hot that I get why you reacted like that. Honestly, it _is_ that hot." He said to Alex, who growled and glared heatedly at him.

"Guys, come on." Alphys requested, slightly annoyed with both of them. The older one looked away and the younger one crossed her arms and acted like he wasn't there. The lizard sighed before turning to the oldest of the seven humans.

He held out his hand slightly and activated his soul flames. His was bright yellow wrapped around a light green flame not unlike the color of Kindness. The monster reached towards the flame, and the teen suddenly spoke up. "You don't want to touch that."

"Why not?" She asked.

"The last object I touched with it got set on fire. Just write down that it's incredibly hot." The blond requested.

"But… doesn't it hurt, then?" Alphys asked.

"No." Adam answered.

"Hmm… if you say so." Alphys said before writing things down and walking back to the front where everyone could see her easily. "AJ, Frisk, Josh, do you have any new abilities you'd like to add?" They all shook their heads and answered with variants of 'no'. "Then you can just stay here, I've already documented you three fully. The rest, come down to the testing area, please."

* * *

Josh stood with his arms crossed, AJ leaned on the rail, and Frisk continued to sit on Undyne's arm while they stood and watched the mages below. The monster scientist had the mages line up at the front of the testing area, facing the back wall.

"Now, I am going to have you all demonstrate your magical abilities one at a time." Alphys started. "You will show the ability, and explain it as well as you can. This should be plenty enough space for you do it, I hope. Would anyone like to go first?"

"Yeah, I'll do it!" Alex spoke up quickly with a confident grin that the others were quickly realizing was her default expression.

"Alright! I'm excited, so let's get this started!" Alphys said with her own level of excitement and quickly went up one of the ramps to get out of the testing area.

The short teen's grin widened as she punched her open palm. "Alright!" She pulled back that fist, and it became covered in glowing orange energy. She paused for a moment before throwing that fist forward. "Hah!" The moment her punch connected with the air, the orange energy was flung forward, and the fist of orange magic flew across the room and impacted the wall.

"Whoa!" A few of them exclaimed in surprise.

Alex glanced at them and took in their surprised looks. "Yeah, that's right, I can punch people in face without even touching them!"

"You have… orange attacks?" Alphys finally spoke her thoughts, completely shocked. Seeing the attack for herself, she saw that was not simply a orange magic attack. "H-Humans can use orange attacks!?" She asked before turning to Undyne and the humans. "AJ, Undyne, w-would either of you be willing t-to take a hit for science!?"

"Uh, well-" AJ had intended to put off answering that question in the hopes that Undyne would eventually volunteer. Turns out that was unnecessary.

"I see what you're thinking!" Undyne realized before nodding. "Right, I'll do it then." The fish warrior walked down to the middle of the testing area and got in a fighting stance while facing the brave mage. "Well? Come on! Hit me with your best shot!" She taunted.

Alex grinned at the challenge before launching another orange fist attack at the monster.

"Oof!" Undyne took the magic attack to the gut and bent forward somewhat before straightening up. "Not bad." She said with a toothy grin.

Alex chuckled. "Heh. How about THIS!?" She shouted as she swung hard, launching another ranged magic attack.

The monster's grin grew as she prepared herself. At the last second she suddenly stepped forward as if she was breaking into a sprint, but her sprint ended after the first step, and she simply stood there casually and grinned at the girl. The orange fist had passed right through her body and hit the wall behind her.

The orange soul's eyes widened. "W-What the hell was that!?" She asked with a mix of anger, confusion, and disappointment.

"You don't know about Orange Attacks, do you?" Alphys guessed.

"What's an 'orange attack'!?" Alex asked.

"The orange fist that you are shooting out is an orange attack. It is a type of magic attack that, until now, had only been used by monsters." Alphys explained.

"It only hits things that aren't moving." Undyne explained what the girl really wanted to know.

"WHAT!? What's the point of it then!?" Alex asked the world angrily.

Alphys finished writing something down on her clipboard. "If you really need to know the tactics of orange attacks, ask me later. For now, show us what else you can do."

The girl in orange grumbled as she let out a breath. "Fine. You able to take a few hits?"

"Heh. You really asking?" Undyne responded with a grin.

Alex grinned. "Good." She immediately broke into a sprint towards Undyne, who got ready for a fight. After her third step, the mage's body began giving off orange particles and energy, and she suddenly sped up and crossed the rest of the distance in half the time. The orange particles stopped flowing as she stopped in front of Undyne and threw a punch. She deflected it to the side and swung her own punch at the mage's head. Alex ducked under it and stepped to the side before swinging once again.

Undyne sidestepped the attack before going for a kick aimed at the human's side. The girl jumped up to avoid it and swung hard at the monster's face while still in the air. The fist was blocked by an open hand and Alex pulled her hand back before Undyne could grab it. She landed and smirked before orange magic particles started flowing out of her. In almost the blink of an eye she had juked behind Undyne and aimed a punch at her lower back. Undyne's eyes widened in surprise at the sudden show of speed and she just barely turned and elbowed the attack away. She retaliated immediately with a hard swing at Alex's face, but the girl ducked fast enough to partially become an orange blur. She was quick to sneak three hits on Undyne's torso, strengthened not only by soul magic in her muscles, but by striking with such speed that ever her arms become orange blurs when she struck.

Undyne lurched over from the attacks, but powered through and delivered a sudden kick to the girl's chin that knocked her onto her back. Alphys was worried that the mage may have been really harmed by that, but the girl simply spit onto the floor before grinning up at Undyne. Her soul magic was flowing through her, and they know now that that reduces the damage your body takes, so her jaw was fine. If it wasn't, they did have someone with healing magic in the room, so they'd be fine anyway.

"You hit frickin hard, kid." The warrior said before holding out her hand and pulling her up. "Be careful when you do that with others, alright? You hit a mage not using magic, or any other human, and you're gonna break bones, and that's not fun for anyone."

"Yeah, I got the dumb rant from AJ already." Alex pointed out.

The boy rolled his eyes.

"Well, if you two are done 'sparring', could you explain what all that was?" Alphys requested.

"Uh…" The orange soul shrugged uncaringly. "I just can make myself go faster when I want to."

"So you can run faster?" Alphys guessed.

"Not just running, I can move any part of me faster." Alex corrected.

"So Bravery has ranged fist attacks, and a full body speed boost?" The monster scientist listed off.

"It's all _I_ got." The girl answered with a shrug.

"Understood. Who would like to go next?" Alphys asked.

* * *

"I can go next!" Sarah spoke up.

"Sure! What do you have?" Alphys asked.

"Well, basically, as far as I can tell I can create traps, and I can make myself run faster." The older girl explained.

"Just running!? Hah!" Alex laughed.

"You want a race, then?" Sarah asked with a bit of a confident grin.

"A race? To where?" The short girl asked.

"Just to the back wall. All out with our bodies and our soul magic." The purple soul answered.

"You're on!" Alex said with a grin.

Sarah walked over next to her opponent and they got in a runner's stance.

"Don't mess up." Josh said with a grin.

"Alright then. Three, two, one, GO!" AJ counted.

They both crossed with inhuman speed, a purple and orange blur side by side, but as long as you didn't blink, and you were paying attention, you would see that Perseverance clearly gained a greater boost in speed than bravery did.

"WHAT!?" Alex shouted in disbelief.

"Wow… you almost had me there." Sarah noticed, a bit surprised.

"I should have had you!" The orange mage complained.

"What did I say, Alex!? What did I say!?" Josh said with a huge grin to make sure Alex could see it.

"That wasn't a fair race! She has longer legs!" Alex pointed out.

"There's not much we can do about that, though." Sarah pointed out to her.

"Sarah."

"Yes?" The mage said, turning to Alphys for a moment.

"What exactly are these 'traps' you mentioned?" The lizard asked.

"Oh! Right! Those! Um… Undyne? Could you maybe be a test dummy for the traps?" The purple soul asked hesitantly.

Undyne suddenly loomed over her. "A test _what now_?"

Sarah shook in fear. "Uh… um…"

"Pfft haha! I'm just messing with ya!" The warrior slapped her on the back and she fell with a girly scream. "Sure! It's quickly becoming my job today anyway." Undyne commented.

"Great… um, okay, just stand right there for a sec." Sarah walked a few steps to a part of the back wall that was further away from the fish woman. She raised her hand to the wall with her fingers together, and the tips of her index and middle finger began glowing purple before she pressed those fingers against the wall, leaving a small purple light. "Alright! Just uh, walk up to it!" She requested with a bright smile.

"So what exactly is this thing gonna do when I-" Undyne's question was cut off when she got within a few feet of the light. In a quarter of a second, the light began to glow just a bit brighter before magical energy shot out of the light in a straight line towards Undyne. "Whoa!" Undyne had just enough time to raise her arm before the sudden magical rope touched her arm and stuck to it. The warrior grunted as she pulled her arm back, nothing happened. She growled in exertion as she pulled away from the magical trap, nothing happened. The end of this purple rope was stuck to her arm and would not let go.

"I can also do _this_." Sarah brought her hand to her level and focused her magic. A strange purple goop made of magic soon was undulating around her hand. She threw her hand out towards Undyne's feet, and the gel shot out from her hand and hit the ground, instantly growing to form a large puddle of purple goo up to Undyne's ankles.

"What the-!?" The fish monster noticed this and struggled more. Now her arm was being pulled on by a magic rope trap, and her feet were bound to the floor by weird purple goo that she couldn't struggle through.

Sarah began to feel bad for Undyne. "Sorry…" She apologized as she waved her arm to the side, and the magical trap and goo both faded away, allowing Undyne to move again.

"That's stuff's really strong!" The warrior readily admitted, shocked by how well those traps worked.

"Yep! None of my friends could get out of them, and one was even a mage!" Sarah commented to her before turning to Alphys. "I can make traps that do lots of different things, though. I can make that trap pull the person against the wall instead of just holding them there, I can make traps that use more ropes and wrap you up instead of sticking to you, I can even make ones that act like spider webs!"

"Hm… interesting… Is that all you can do?" Alphys asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." Sarah answered with a smile.

"Alright then, next." The monster scientist requested.

* * *

No one volunteered immediately. The shy girl with the blue framed glasses let out a worried noise as she looked around at everyone who had gone already, then looked to her right and up at the silent boy next to her. He tilted his head forward and looked towards the center of the testing area, indicating she should go next. She let out another distraught noise and slowly stepped forward.

"Oh! Lilly!" Alphys realized who had stepped forward. The girl pressed her fingers together and glanced up at the monster. "Would you like to show what you can do with the soul of Integrity?"

"W-Well I can only do two things, and I can't actually… show one of them." The young girl explained.

"That's alright. Just tell us about them and show us what you can." The scientist requested with a smile.

"O-Okay." Lilly to a moment to breathe and prepare to speak up. "Well, th-the one I can't show you is, I can see a person's… integrity." Lilly explained.

"Really?" Alphys asked, interested.

"Yeah." She answered with a smile that lasted for just a second. "I just… put the energy in my eyes, and I can see how much integrity someone has."

"Interesting!" The lizard exclaimed. "So what is the other thing you can do?"

"I can make… b-bouncy magic." Lilly answered.

"Bouncy magic?" Alphys repeated.

"Bouncy magic!?" Frisk asked excitedly.

"Y-Yeah." The blue soul answered before turning to the center of the testing area. She pointed her hand at the ground in front of her, and the palm of her hand was covered in blue magic. After a moment, the blue magic shot out from her hand in the shape of a small ball. The sphere of blue magic flew at high speed and created a thin blue layer of blue magic in the shape of a square when it hit the ground. "D-Do you want to try it?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yeah!" The red soul said before jumping over the rail with an excited smile and ran over to the square on the ground. She jumped and spun so she would land on her back, which she did, and she bounced off of it completely and landed with an "Oof!" on the other side of it. She burst out laughing, and Lilly smiled at this and let out a bit of a chuckle as well.

Alphys watched as Frisk jumped onto the blue square repeatedly and bounced off of it every time. "Huh… that really is bouncy magic…" She noticed before writing things down. "Thank you, Lilly."

The girl smiled and nodded before removing the bouncy square as she walked back to where the others were. She did this just as Frisk jumped at it again, causing her to fall flat on the ground. Everyone worried that had hurt her, but she just let out a disappointed "Aww…" and didn't seem affected otherwise.

* * *

"Adam, you're the last one." Alphys said.

The blonde turned to the other tall human in the room. "I need you to create a large barrier in front of the wall."

"What? Why?" AJ asked.

"I'd rather not damage the wall." Adam answered before looking straight ahead.

The kind soul wanted to ask questions, but he knew that was pointless as he would likely have his answer in a moment. He shrugged, figuring he might as well just do it. "Okay." His hand glowed bright green and a large green barrier appeared in front of the back wall.

Adam raised his arm up straight towards the wall. He pointed at the wall with a single finger, and his thumb raised up to the sky.

He literally was pointing a finger pistol at the wall.

Alex couldn't help but laugh. "Pfft! What the hell are you-"

*Pew!* *Pew!* *Pew!*

Three yellow lasers suddenly shot out from his finger and traveled at rapid speed, hitting the wall in three different places and creating large cracks in its form.

Most reacted with varied volumes of "Whoa!"

"Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about that!" AJ exclaimed to Frisk.

"Yeah, me too!" The child responded.

Alphys smiled to herself in accomplishment. Her device that she had given the humans back in the Underground really had allowed them to use yellow soul magic. Her thoughts drifted to that for a moment before she regained her focus. "So Justice is also capable of ranged attacks. What else can you do?"

"If I focus soul energy into my feet, I can run on or up walls for a short distance." The just soul answered.

"Could you possibly demonstrate that?" The lizard asked.

"No."

Alphys gave him an annoyed glare before letting out a sigh. "Fine. I suppose the description is all I really need for that. Is that all you can do?" She asked.

"That's all." Adam answered.

"Well alright then, I suppose that's everyone. Thank you all for taking time from your day to help me with this."

"No problem!" Sarah said with a smile.

Lilly smiled lightly and nodded.

"You're lucky I was in the neighborhood." Alex commented with a grin.

Adam turned and began walking out.

With nothing to do, the rest of the mages decided to stick around a bit. Alex noticed the other getting along and she decided to leave and get away from Josh. The others talked for another half an hour before deciding to part ways, but in that time they decided hanging out didn't sound like a bad idea, so they agreed to do that later.

* * *

 **I just noticed that I've never said it, but if anyone ever wanted to do fanart for anything in this fanfic series, you don't have to ask, go right ahead. And if any of you actually did something like that, I'd love to see it! Anyway…**

 **Finally! I've written down and posted the main things (definitely not everything, cause where's the fun in just telling it all at once?) that the seven soul traits allow a mage to do! Literally spent months thinking them all up, using inspiration, creativity, references from the Undertale game, and the need for them all to be vaguely balanced but unique, in order to create all the abilities they have now. It was really fun! The grandest (in scale) thing I've ever thought up!**

 **Also, abrupt ending is abrupt, since I should probably just keep this soul magic info in one chapter, and dialogue is not my strong suit and doing more is probably asking too much of me right now.**

 **If you enjoyed, a review would be very appreciated, but regardless what you do…**

 **I hope you all have a great week!**


	28. Holograms

**I am honestly writing this simply because I think it would be really cool. At the moment it holds no relevance to the story in any way (although I'll probably make it minutely relevant somehow at some point)**

 **Also posting this now cause the chapter that's supposed to happen chronologically after the last one is going to take me a long time to write, but this chapter is done already so there's no reason I should leave you guys with nothing for the week. We'll just say the chapter is a flashback when I finally finish it.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.28

* * *

"Alright, so, you are either going to find this as awesome as I do, or you're not really gonna care that much." Alphys started.

"Okay…" AJ said, awkwardly waiting for her to continue as the three of them stood in her lab.

"I mean why wouldn't you though!? This is so much cooler than using your phone!" The lizard exclaimed, more to herself than to them.

"So, wait, why am I here again?" Frisk asked, confused. The monster had been very excited that day and her explanations of things kinda went over their heads.

"Because I have something for you to test, something that you guys can take with you and tell me how it works as you mess around with it!" Alphys answered with an excited smile. "I'm going to send us all into the future! The super cool future, to be precise!"

The older human chuckled at her excitement. "Alright, alright, we get it, you're excited! You need to actually explain it all to us if we're gonna be excited too, ya know!" He pointed out.

"Right, right, hehe… sorry." Alphys cleared her throat. "Anyway, I became inspired lately because you humans have _vast_ amounts of media for me to access. Video games, movies, TV shows, books, fanfiction, and in all those different stories are so many forms of technology that you humans, and therefore all of us, don't have. So I ended up coming across an entertaining video game that made me realize, 'Wait, I have magic tech, who knows what I can make with it that you couldn't before'! And that's how I got to trying to bring us all to the cool looking future, starting with something sans and I could easily design and build ourselves!" Alphys then went over to a small white desk with a single drawer that was in the middle of the room for seemingly no reason.

There was something on the desk worth noting though, a strange device. It looked like a tan disk, flat on one side, that could fit in your hand easily enough. The flat side was resting on the ground so the device was level, and it had a very small circular black button on the top, along with what looked like a lens directly in the middle, next to the button. Alphys pressed the small button before gesturing to the desk. "Tada!"

To their surprise, the lens began producing purple light and they immediately saw letters floating above the desk. First were the words "Items Currently Stored" and under that was simply the word "Wrench".

"Whooooaaa! Cool!" The girl exclaimed, walking up closer to look at the floating letters more.

"Whoa, hey! A hologram!" AJ said, being used to seeing them in video games and such. He walked closer to it before his eyes suddenly widened and his expression shifted as he realized how holograms went in the real world. "Wait, you made _holograms_!?" He said, pointing at the monster of the group.

"Yep!" The lizard answered, and he was pretty sure her tail swayed behind her a bit. She opened the drawer and showed that there was in fact just a wrench in there, as well as a small camera inside that detected whatever was thrown in or taken out, and sent this data to the holographic display above.

"How in the world did you make holograms?" The boy asked seriously.

"Well, basically, I discovered that the power of human computers can allow me to use magic tech to turn magical energy into amounts smaller than the eye can see, but it can still be manipulated and controlled. Normally holograms would require manipulating light somehow, but I got the idea to substitute light for magical energy that I can easily control, and it worked! The magic moves almost the speed of light, and will gather in just enough of a concentration to be seen, without really having any mass! AND, it's not light, so it doesn't keep going till it hits a wall or something!" Alphys explained.

Needless to say, Frisk did not follow. Though at this point, she didn't expect to.

"So far I've got a hologram system that shows me where my things are without having to go through them myself, sans volunteered his phone, so I've got a system that projects your phone screen in front of you! Though what I'm really excited about is the system I'm gonna give you guys!" She then went over to a nearby table and grabbed two more small devices that looked nearly identical to the one on the table, though the lens they had was on one of the ends of it rather than the top. She handed one to each of them before pointing at her hip. "It just attaches to your shirt through, um… actually I'll just say that's magic and leave it at that. Anyway, just press the button to turn it on and the sensors on it will help it project an interactive hologram just the right distance in front of you! Just think of it like a touchscreen phone!"

"Okay…" The boy trailed off and pressed the button on the device after sticking it to his right side. He suddenly found a screen of blue magic in front of him. There was so little magic that it was practically see through besides relevant info like text. "Hehe… hahaha! HaHAHAHA!" His high levels of excitement led to him laughing maniacally. "This is AWESOME!" He shouted before he reached out to the projection and started trying to figure out how navigate through the device. Like the holograms that had inspired the scientist, it responded to when he touched it.

"There aren't many programs currently on them right now, but I did give you guys a few things to try out." The lizard said to the humans who were now both standing in front of her with their arms extended towards the holograms in front of them. "Basically I'm having you guys take these home and just play with them. See what they can do, tell me what I should change about them, things like that."

"Oh! So we're basically just testers for a program before it goes public." AJ noticed.

"Yes, actually! I'm hoping to make this a usable product for everyone, and I've already got a few ideas for how I could improve on this system and make different variants of it!" Alphys explained passionately.

The older human was busying himself with thinking of things he could do on his phone and then figuring out how to do it with this holographic system. Tap a file to open it, brush your fingers along the surface of the hologram to scroll, use both hands rather than two fingers to zoom in or zoom out. If he focused when he touched the "screen" he could ever so faintly feel that the tips of his fingers were touching something physical, but the amount of magical energy was small, and gave easily if you applied even a small amount of force to it.

"So, are you gonna keep this 2D, or expand to 3D at some point?" The boy asked.

"Oh, it actually can become 3D when necessary." Alphys responded. "Just go to the home page, then gallery, then 3D models. I made a few really simple ones to test the 3D capability."

Frisk had mimicked her instructions all the way up till the home page, because her eyes homed in on the file titled "Games". She gasped in surprise. "You have _games_!?" She whispered excitedly.

"Well of course! You have to have games!" Alphys answered with a light laugh.

In the time it took her to say that, the younger human had pressed on the file, and it had opened up to show five games were inside. She gasped once again. "More than one! Yeeeees!"

The monster chuckled at that. "Yep! I was able to think of a few simple concepts for holographic games. So, just take this home and try out everything you can on it. Try to, uh, keep it to yourselves until I go public about the devices. It'll be easier to work on them that way."

"Understood." The taller human said with a nod. "Not to be rude, but, I'd like to get home now so we can play with these." He admitted with a chuckle.

Alphys laughed a bit. "That's fine! Go ahead! I'll get back to work and try to make more and better holo-devices."

"Alright then, see ya." AJ said and waved as he turned to leave.

"Bye!" Frisk said, waving as well.

"I'll be waiting for your guys' feedback!" The female lizard said.

* * *

The door to their house flew open. "Aaallllright!" The boy said excitedly as Frisk walked in before him. "Let's close the curtains so people can't see…" He trailed off as the two humans closed the curtains for the windows in their living room. "And then let's do this!"

Toriel came walking down the stairs. "Welcome back, children!" She greeted before gaining just the slightest look of concern. "What was it that Alphys needed?"

"Come on, Toriel, everything that Alphys tests isn't some dangerous explosive." The boy pointed out. "In fact, what she gave us today is awesome!"

"We got holograms!" The child cheered before pressing the button on the small projector on her right side.

"Oh!" Toriel exclaimed at the sight of the magic lights in front of the girl. "Well, that does look interesting!"

"Yeah, she's going to make this a public thing eventually once she's gotten better with the tech and probably after creating some more uses for it. We're just supposed to test it and just suggest ways to make it better." He looked off to the side. "She probably should have found better people for this than us, but… oh well! I'm not turning down the chance to have freakin holograms!" He exclaimed with an excited smile.

Goat Mom chuckled. "Good. I am glad I do not have to worry."

AJ sat down on the couch before turning on the device again, producing an area he could interact with that was at least twice the size of an ipad. He quickly went back to the gallery and pulled up the model of earth. It was only as detailed as a globe model, with no words on it besides the name of the continents. He was actually able to grab the globe and turn it around in his hands, or leave it floating in place and just spin it around. He imagined what it would look like if it was much more detailed, with streets and names of cities if you zoomed in farther. He couldn't help but get all giddy at the fact that this was actually happening. He was literally holding and playing with holograms.

He looked to the reading chair on his right, where Frisk was, and saw her playing a game with the holograms. She had a flat, vertical screen in front of her, with small, random circles appearing at random intervals. The game was to tap as many circles as she could, she was only allowed to miss three before she'd lose. It was the standard game with the goal of beating your own high score, but she had to be _very_ quick to catch each circle as it appeared.

"Which game is that?" The teen asked.

"Uh…" It took her a moment to think as her eyes rushed over the screen to keep up with the circles that kept popping up. She hit three of them over the course of a second. "The third one!" She exclaimed as she nearly missed one.

"Okay." He put his hands on the top right and bottom left corners of the magic blue particle field that the projector was using and brought them to the middle in order to close the file entirely and go back to the home page. He clicked on the square labeled "games" and opened it up to the five files labeled in a number order. "Oh, she didn't name them. Eh, I'm terrible at names, too." He decided to try out the game himself and quickly felt how quick you needed to be to keep up with this game, and he was only playing on the normal difficulty.

Frisk still wanted to try the other games, so she decided to end the current one and try out the fifth game. The menu that popped up did not explain the game, but told her that two people were need to play the game. "Oh, AJ! This is a two player game! Let's try it!"

"Which one?" He asked.

"Number five!" She answered.

He quit his game and started up the fifth one. He stood up as he read the screen that stayed in front of him no matter where he walked. " 'This game requires two players. Stand at least five feet apart, preferably eight or more, and stand directly opposite of your opponent.' " After reading that, they did as instructed, and seeing no other option, both pressed the "Next" button. " 'Now hold your hand on the circle in front of you.' "

A bright outline of a blue circle had appeared in front of both of them. They both held a hand out and pressed it against the circle. From the center of the circle, magic energy stretched out as a beam of light to the other circle. After the beams connected, a small box of text appeared slightly to the right of them to explain the next step. "Keep your hand on the circle. Now, while standing still and keeping your arm stretched out, move the circle as far to the right as you can." They did as instructed, and their opposing circles were kept connected by the beam of blue light as they reached as far right as they could. They held their arms out for a few moment until they heard a *ping* sound from their projectors. They didn't know they could make sound.

The box then instructed them to bring the circles back to the middle. After that, it said to bring their holographic circles as high, and then as low as they can. With that, the text confirmed that was all they needed to do. Suddenly, their projectors stretched out a thing veil of magic 'light'. They were used to this, and had recognized it was the boundary of where the projector would create holograms, but what surprised them was how the projectors had both produced one half of a box that stretched the full eight feet between them, and spread out the full distance that AJ could reach where he was standing, on both sides. They both took a few moments to admire the incredibly large combined-hologram.

"How freaking long has she been working on these!?" The older human said, shocked, before pointing at the projectors on their right sides. "And what did she put in these things!? This looks like it would take a lot of computing power! And it's in such a little thing!"

"Maybe it doesn't actually take that much?" Frisk guessed.

He stared at the massive hologram in awe for a moment longer. "She really is sending us into the future… geez…"

A familiar text box appeared to the right of both of them, and AJ noticed there was a "Continue" button, as well as a "What was that?" button. He pressed the questioning one, and the text changed to a long explanation.

"The purpose of what you were just instructed was to find the max range the two competitors could reach. The beam you saw kept your projectors connected so the computers inside them could share the information and use it to build a 3D arena with their combined projecting power. It is currently set to the maximum range, meaning it stretches as far as the person who is tallest, or just has the longest limbs." He clicked the "Next" button.

"The slider below allows you to change the size of the box-shaped arena accordingly. You can see it is marked with the range of the maximum reach of both individuals. You could set it to fit the shorter/smaller individual to make it easier for them, but it would be easier for their opponent as well. You could also make it even larger, so the taller/larger individual would have to move around for the game, but then their opponent would need to move even more to keep up."

The box grew in size suddenly, and the boy noticed Frisk had moved the slider on her side. "Are you sure you want to do that? Even with your arms out it's almost double your width now." He pointed out.

"I don't mind." The girl responded honestly.

He shrugged as he didn't feel that bad if she just made it harder for herself. "If you say so. Don't make it any bigger though, or it won't fit the living room anymore." He said, and they both chuckled.

"Would you like to know the how the game works?" was the next thing that popped up on their text boxes. They both pressed "Yes", and they both were allowed to separately scroll through the explanation. Basically, this was 3D Pong, and they could either play using their whole bodies, or play while moving a virtual blocker to stop the ball. They decided to not use the virtual blocker, and the game's countdown began.

Once it began, a white, holographic ball somewhat larger than a baseball appeared in the middle, and began floating towards Frisk. It floated down to her level, and she tapped on the outside of the box just as it was about to touch that point on the holo-wall. A small part of where she touched glowed brighter, and the ball was repelled. It bounced off the floor on the way back to AJ's side, and he simply raised his arm up to touch the upper wall as it reached it. It bounced back, then off the ceiling, and came in towards Frisk again. She could see where it would reach, and she simply held her hand on that point until the ball bounced off.

It seemed like this wouldn't end easily, considering they could use their hands or even their feet to quickly touch a point on the outside of the arena and make the ball bounce away. However, they noticed the ball was slowly speeding up, and the longer they went, the quicker they had to be. It got to a point where the ball was totally out of control, and instead of reaching their side over the course off three seconds, it would hit their side if they just blinked three times. Pretty soon they were shouting and scrambling to keep up. The ball began moving so fast and bouncing off so many parts of the wall that it was impossible to keep up, and it hit the wall on Frisk's side before she could reach it in time.

They both took their time to catch their breath.

"Geez… that was… crazy…" AJ exclaimed.

"It was… really fast…" Frisk said.

"We need… to shrink the arena… cause you have too much ground to cover… and it's impossible when it gets that fast…"

"No… Come on… We can do this…"

He let out an annoyed sigh. "I didn't expect the holo-games to be such a damn workout…" He commented before straightening up.

Frisk did the same. "Alright… ready?"

"Ready."

She pressed the large button on her side, and the ball spawned in, and the next round began. They had fun with that game, and there was lots of fumbling, laughing, shouting, and cheering all around. Toriel came down to watch when it was clear they were having a lot of fun, and they even got her to try the game against Frisk. She fumbled around and ended up even clumsier than they were, but the three of them had a ton of fun, and Toriel was even wishing she could get her own from Alphys, saying she planned to buy one when she could. She eventually changed her statement and simply said it seemed like a good source of fun for family and friends.

* * *

That night, AJ stayed up to keep messing around with the holograms for awhile longer. The first thing he did was go to settings and discover that this system thankfully had a brightness setting, though the nightlight kept it from being terribly necessary. He decided to check the messaging system that he figured would have nothing in it and found two contacts. One was simply the other device, and one was Alphys. He figured he should send a message to Alphys while he was thinking about it. Pressing the buttons on the screen was very different from typing on a normal keyboard, and so it took awhile to write out all his thoughts.

Alphys pushed a few papers aside and let out a content sigh, satisfied with the work she had done, and ready to finally go to sleep. She slowly walked out of her side of the lab and looked out into the dark of the rest of the lab that was going unused. She turned back around to the light coming from her room in the lab and flicked the switch to turn it off. Her quiet steps had just made it to the stairs when she heard a noise from the table behind her.

*Beep* *Beep*… *Beep* *Beep*…*Beep* *Beep*

Her eyes opened back to full when she realized that was her hologram projector system on the table, and that it could only be getting messages from one of two sources. She walked with a somewhat quicker pace to the table and pressed the button on the device. It projected magical energy upwards, and the purple light from it did little to pierce the dark of the lab. The notification on the large projection was that she had, in fact, gotten a message.

The text read "Hey, Alphys, just thought I'd say this while I'm thinking about it, even though you might have already thought about this, but… Have you considered making the projector capable of producing a hologram entirely around you? Right now there's just the one device and it can only create an image on one side of you since I'm assuming it can't just send magical energy right through you to your other side. We've already seen that you somehow made these things capable of sharing information with each other through the holograms, so have you maybe considered, as odd as it would look, giving people two devices, one on each side, and made it so they were constantly connected so they could properly create a full image around you? It would certainly make it easier to play games like that two player one if you didn't have to be always facing the projection. Just a thought, figured you might like to at least have ideas, even though I don't see too many uses for this concept for a normal person."

Alphys smiled for a moment before pressing the respond button. The projector she now had on the table was a brand new device she had just finished that day, and it had another lens on the side of it that allowed it to create an angled holographic keyboard floating just off the table for her.

The teen was jumpscared by a loud beeping that seemed to have been magnified by the lack of noise in the room a moment before. He quickly pressed the only button on the projector in hopes it would stop, and it did. The device had no problem adapting to him lying in his bed and created a screen that was still parallel to him. The message from Alphys read "Thanks. I'll make sure to add that to my list of ideas for holograms that I plan to get to. Integrating holographic systems with each other like going from one device to a different one, integrating holo-systems with normal systems, and the obvious, like finding more and better ways to make use of holograms."

In the time it took AJ to find the volume setting and lower it massively, he got another message from the lizard. "We should probably get to sleep, shouldn't we? Goodnight."

He reached up to the screen floating over him to type back "Right. Goodnight."

The blue light shining over his body disappeared as he turned off the projector and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

 **THE FUTURE IS NOW, THANKS TO SCIENCE!**

 **I explained that the best I could but I'm sure most of you still didn't get the visual since I'm really terrible at those. Sorry! I'd animate or draw it if I could!**

 **Honestly just using magic tech to satisfy my fantasies of cool futuristic stuff being just available to everyone…**

 **I don't really know what else to say, so… have a good one!**

* * *

Alphys turned off the projector and walked away with a smile. Her smile suddenly went away and she stopped walking, her eyes widening from an epiphany. "A WAYPOINT SYSTEM! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE!?" She suddenly shouted at the ceiling before running over to write down the thought while she still had it.


	29. Friendly Friends

**And from a chapter I was excited to about to a chapter I'm dreading…**

 _ **Dialogue…**_

 **Welp. Let's get this over with.**

 **Hope you enjoy my inability to create conversation that perfectly matches my ability to have one in real life!**

 **(And like I said last time this chapter is a bit of a time jump back from the hologram thing.)**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.29

* * *

Currently, the red, green, and teal souls were walking down a street in the more residential part of Onyx. Though they were in the residential area on the opposite side of the city compared to the one that the Dreemurrs lived in. This side had less nice houses with well-kept front lawns and more apartment complexes and walls covered in colorful graffiti.

"Why am I being dragged to this stupid thing?" AJ complained.

"Because there's nothing wrong with making more friends!" Frisk answered adamantly.

"Hey, don't worry, man. Just because that Sarah chic wants us all to get together and be friends and junk, doesn't mean they're gonna show up. There's no way Alex is gonna go where she knows I'll be at, and I doubt that Adam guy really cares to hang out with us." Josh said to his fellow teen.

"But why does she care at all?" The older teen continued complaining. "She just met us yesterday!"

"Guess she's just one of those people that likes making friends." The patient soul guessed.

"And there's nothing wrong with that." The child pointed out.

Josh elbowed the kind soul. "Eh, if it makes you feel any better, I don't really get it either. She talked about her other friends, shoulda just hung out with them."

"Well it's like you said, she wants to be friends with us, too!" The determined mage said happily.

"And I think she has enough friends." AJ commented.

"Oh you're just saying that cause you don't want to be here." Frisk responded with a smile.

Josh chuckled. "She's got you there." The older teen lightly shoved him almost immediately and he let out a laugh. They continued to follow the younger boy's directions for awhile until he suddenly pointed across the street. "Right over here." He saw no cars were coming, so he walked across the road and the other mages had little choice but to follow him.

"We're hanging out at a basketball court?" The green soul deadpanned.

"What's wrong with that?" The patient mage asked, confused.

"You aren't gonna make us play, right?" AJ asked.

"I mean we don't have to." Josh answered.

"No! We should play!" Frisk spoke up as they stopped and stood together in the makeshift basketball court.

The other Dreemurr turned and stared at her for a moment. "Yeah, cause that would be a fair game."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The girl asked.

"It's hard to play basketball when you're short." The younger teen answered with a smirk.

Frisk let out an angry gasp. "That doesn't matter!" She pointed out before jumping ten feet in the air. She smiled down at them as she reached the apex of her jump. "I can still jump!"

Josh stared with an open mouth and wide eyes as the girl fell back to earth and landed fairly easily.

"Yeah, well everyone can do that, so don't go thinking that's an advantage." AJ commented.

"Wait, _everyone_ can do that!?" Josh asked, shocked.

"Yeah." The older teen said with a casual shrug.

"Dude, WHAT!?" The teal soul exclaimed with an excited smile before drawing soul energy into his legs as quickly as he could. Once he was sure he had plenty in his muscles, he jumped, and flew just as high as the child had. "WHOHOO!" He shouted as he fell back down. "DUDE, magic is _insane_!" He shouted before jumping up again.

"I know, right? It's like… 'Yeah, we live in an anime world now. This is normal.' " The kind mage said.

The shorter boy landed again. "Right!? Like all this stuff with magic and these monsters should just be anime junk, but it isn't! I can _feel_ the energy in me and I can use it to jump up buildings and lift the sides of cars if I wanted to!"

"It's so surreal. Sometimes I just take a step back and realize how amazing all this is. It's why I rant so much about in posts and stuff. I get used to stuff way too easily I think, it's only been a few months and I'm almost forgetting anything else was normal." AJ said with a light smile. "Oh! And, get this, I saw a comment this morning about someone saying they had watched my videos to help them control their magic, and they said they were from another town, they don't live in Onyx. First time I've ever seen that."

"So mages are popping up in other towns now? Sweet." Josh responded.

"Cool!" Frisk commented.

"Yeah, it's finally not just an Onyx thing." The green soul said.

"Hey guys!" Sarah called out from the side. They all turned and saw her walking up to them with a bright smile and two others in tow. On her right was Adam, who seemed to only be begrudgingly coming along. On her left was Alex, who she was clearly dragging along. Behind them they saw Lilly sneak by and find a cheap chair to sit down.

"Hi~!" The child greeted back with a wave.

"Hey, so uh, question." Josh started. "How'd you get them to come along?"

"It wasn't cause of _you_ , I can promise you that!" Alex spoke up.

"Well it only happened because I figured out something really cool that I can do!" Sarah answered him before turning to AJ. "Turns out that when I get hit, I can hit back twice as hard, and that made these two stop complaining pretty quickly!" She said as she pointed at the orange and yellow souls and let out a laugh.

"Uh, can you demonstrate?" The kind mage asked, curious.

"Sure!" The persevering mage answered before walking a bit close to him. "Just go ahead, hit me."

He hesitated. "Uh… I'd really rather not."

"I'll do it." The teal soul said before stepping up to her.

"Alright." Sarah said before turning her shoulder to him. He gave her a solid punch to which she flinched slightly before grinning. The lower half of her right arm became covered in bright purple magic and she spoke as she raised the arm for a punch. "You better block…" Josh raised both his arms and filled his body with soul energy as he braced. The purple magic vanished as soon as her fist made contact with him, and the boy was sent backwards and did two full flips before landing on his back. She looked slightly apologetic. "Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Damn…" Was all the boy could say as he slowly sat up with wide eyes. "That was one hell of a punch."

"Not gonna lie, that was kinda satisfying to watch." AJ admitted with a smirk pointed to the downed boy.

"Why?" Sarah asked, confused.

"Cause we actually tried sparing once before, and let me tell ya, fighting with him is incredibly one sided." The green soul explained.

"Only cause it's incredibly one sided to get anywhere near you, ya fool!" Josh exclaimed, suddenly on his feet.

Alex decided that this conversation was interesting enough to join in, despite who was discussing it. "What are you on about, Joshy?" She asked.

"This guy here is impossible to fight when you get in close with him." The patient mage explained.

Alex chuckled before pointing both her thumbs towards herself. "Heh. I think you're talking about me."

Josh grinned in response before stepping behind her and shoving her forwards. "Well why don't you go fight him and prove it, then?" He suggested. "We'll all just sit back and watch you get your butt whooped."

"Ha! Yeah, right!" The brave mage laughed at him before turning and staring confidently up at the boy with the cloak.

Frisk stepped up to the two of them. "Guys, come on. We're supposed to be making friends, not fighting. Friends don't fight…"

"It's not fighting, we're just sparing." AJ said before the two of them walked towards the side of the court that the others weren't standing in.

"AJ!" The child exclaimed, and the older Dreemurr turned to see her pouting at him. "You know how I feel about this."

"Yeah, I know…" He said with a sigh, as he didn't like to make her upset. "But Frisk, this stuff can be fun, and besides, I have healing magic."

"I still don't like this, we shouldn't hurt each other." The determined one commented.

"Just don't watch if you don't want to see me hurt." The green soul said.

"You know I can't do that!" Frisk responded.

"Shut up so we can fight already!" Alex shouted at the child.

"Hey." AJ said, getting his opponent's attention. "Watch it." He warned.

She smirked at him. "Or what?" She asked, an orange heart appearing over her chest.

He smiled back after a moment. "Actually, thanks for that." The smile vanished. "I won't feel bad for hitting you now." A green heart appeared over his chest.

Alex smirked before rushing at him in the blink of an eye as orange energy trialed behind her. AJ stepped back as the hand at his side glowed green. Just before she could hit her mark, the girl's fist collided with a green barrier that had appeared between them. The green wall faded as quick as it had come, and the stinging pain in her knuckles broke her focus just long enough for the taller one to respond with a straight kick to her chest.

She was quick to get back up and launch an orange fist at her opponent before magically rushing him again. He panicked and ducked under the orange attack, and she used this chance to quickly get behind him. He saw this and turned to his left, but he wasn't fast enough to stop her from punching him in the chest with a blur of a punch that knocked him flat on his back. He expected her to capitalize on him being down, so he created barriers around him to trap himself in a box. He used this time to get used to the pain in his chest, recover his breathing, and eventually get up.

Meanwhile, Alex ran up to the box and growled in annoyance. "Coward!" She shouted before punching the wall in front of her, cracking it. She noticed this and began hitting the wall over and over again while letting out a constant yell to overcome the pain in her hands. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" A few punches later and she shattered the wall. AJ turned away to shield his eyes from the green shards before going for a spinning heel kick aimed at head level. The other barriers disappeared as they were no longer needed.

The girl ducked under the kick and went for a speed-enhanced punch at his side, but a small, flat, rectangular barrier blocked her fist before it even got half way. Her eyes widened in surprise while her opponent used his spin to go in for a swing aimed at her head. She became an orange blur for an instant as she quickly juked to her left to avoid it, barely noticing the dead serious look her opponent suddenly had. She used her speed to try and hit his leg before he could react, but a barrier appeared for an instant to block her attack before fading away so he could counterattack with a sudden kick. She spun further around him to avoid that before attempting to swing her fist at him again. "Gah!" She exclaimed in annoyance as her punch was blocked by another barrier suddenly appearing in front of her. He jumped forward and swung down at her, and she jumped to the side once again before leaping at her opponent with fists flying.

Focusing on the fight and the flow of her soul energy was difficult while her emotions were rising, and she failed to boost the speed of any part of her body. AJ was able to step back fast enough to dodge the first hit before interrupting the second swing with a magical wall and jumping to her right in preparation for an attack. She saw this and growled in frustration before finally focusing enough on her soul magic to speed up her arm for the next attack. She turned to him and swung hard, but he suddenly canceled his attack and stepped back to let her punch another barrier between them before quickly stepping forward again and launching a kick that sent her onto her back quite a few feet away.

"Wow, those two are _both_ dangerous up close!" Sarah commented as she watched the fight with enthusiasm.

"Yeah." Josh agreed. "I'm surprised he's able to keep up when she moves so fast like that."

Frisk sighed. "He's been good at fighting ever since we fell into the Underground."

Sarah was a bit confused by the child's choice of words. "Well, obviously he was good before then, right?"

The red soul sighed. "No, he said he'd never been in a fight before."

"What? Then how did he suddenly get so good?" The purple soul asked.

The youngest of them continued to watch the fight worriedly. "I don't know."

Alex staggered up and glared at him before shouting angrily. "AAAGH!" Her hands glowed orange as she threw punches at him that launched themselves out as orange attacks. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Hya! Ha!" AJ raised his hand towards the brave mage as it glowed green, and he created a magic barrier that blocked each of the flying fists, cracking with each hit. The short one jumped high into the air with a furious battle cry. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" She launched magic attack after magic attack as she fell towards him. The opposing green and orange magics glowed like neon lights despite it being still early in the day.

He created another barrier above him to block the barrage of orange attacks. Alex continued to barrage him until she landed on the barrier herself. She growled in frustration when it didn't break, and she pulled back her fist to try and shatter the cracked barrier. AJ saw this and removed the barrier, causing her to fall, before creating another small barrier right under her head. She flipped backwards after her face met the green platform, and her opponent caught her by her leg as she fell. He spun around and threw her at the green wall behind him, and her back slammed against the platform before it vanished. He crossed the distance before she could fall and punched her hard in the stomach, sending her flying away to a nearby wall.

The boy began looking a bit concerned when he saw her slam into the wall. Of course she was soon glaring up at him again, but that didn't change how he felt now. "Hey, I'm thinking we should stop now." He spoke up.

"What!?" She asked angrily.

"I don't want this to escalate any further and have us getting hurt. Can we just stop so I can heal you?" AJ requested.

"I don't need healing!" Alex responded. "You aren't getting out of this after getting a hit on me like that!"

"That's just it. I can tell this is only going to get worse if we keep going. I like sparing, not fighting." The kind mage commented.

"I don't care! Fight me!" The brave mage yelled. She took the first step towards sprinting at him, but she was halted when teal-colored ropes wrapped around her limbs. "Hey!" She turned to her right and glared heatedly at Josh, who was standing there with a single hand raised towards her and a grin on his face.

"Sorry, but I'd rather not see this get out of hand either. Gonna have to hold ya till you calm down." The patient mage said. The girl continued to grunt and struggle, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't break free. "Yeah, someone like you's never gonna get out, so you might as well just calm down, Ginger."

"My name's not GINGER! Shut up!" Alex shouted. Josh just laughed.

"What do you mean 'someone like you'?" AJ asked, confused and curious.

The teal soul realized he had never mentioned this to him. "Oh, well you see, Alphys had me help her with stuff while you were teaching other mages and all that. One thing she did was have me trap different monsters to see how much strength it took to break out, and apparently whatever she saw from us doing that didn't add up. Some broke out while stronger ones didn't, and so she thinks that the way you break out from my magic is more about being patient than being strong."

"Really!?" Sarah asked, her curiosity peaked.

"What, so like the whole point of patience magic is to teach people to be patient?" The green soul said.

The persevering soul hummed in thought. "Hmm. I don't think that would be the _whole_ point of it. Soul magic is used for lots of other things!" She pointed out.

"Yeah, but if you look at it that way, my barriers are sort of to discourage people to not fight and choose kindness." AJ said.

"But your barriers are used for other stuff too, like giving people something to walk on or stand on." Sarah countered.

"Yeah, that's true. I was honestly just exaggerating when I said that it was the whole point." AJ responded.

"You were kinda reaching for that theory anyway." Josh commented.

"Yeah. But wouldn't it be cool if that was true? That magic was all about bringing people together to teach them things like being patient, kind, determined?" The green soul said with a bit of a smile.

Sarah giggled for a moment, and the boy gave her an odd look. "You're so passionate about this stuff, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm passionate!" AJ exclaimed. "Magic is _awesome_ and it is making the world so much better in my opinion!"

"I know, you post about it all the time!" The oldest girl pointed out.

"Oh yeah, right, sorry." The kind mage said.

"Don't be sorry! There's nothing wrong with being passionate! Being passionate is GREAT!" Sarah cheered.

Josh chuckled. "Guessing that's your catchphrase?"

"No, but I wish it was!" She responded with a grin.

Frisk, meanwhile, had gone over and sat in a chair next to the one closest to her age. "Hi!" She greeted.

"Oh, um… hi." Lilly greeted after being caught off guard by the sudden greeting.

"I'm Frisk! I'm sure you know that, though." The red soul realized.

The glasses-wearing girl smiled slightly. "Yeah… I'm Lilly."

The determined child smiled at the girl she had decided would become her friend, but internally she was trying to figure out what to say. She wasn't worried, because talking to people had never gone wrong for her, it was simply a minor delay in her befriending. "So, do you need your glasses to see, or just to read?" She asked.

"No, I… I need them to see." Lilly answered.

"Oh, that's too bad." Frisk responded.

"Yeah…" Lilly agreed.

"Do things get really blurry if you take them off?" The determined one asked.

"Yeah." The blue soul answered hesitantly. "It kind of runs in my family, actually." She stared at the child's face for a moment. "…H-How come your eyes are gold?"

Frisk shrugged. "I don't know, they just are."

"Oh… Well, I-I think they look nice!" Lilly managed to say with a small smile.

"Thank you!" Frisk said cheerfully.

Frisk noticed the girl looking past her, and so she followed her gaze back to the others. She saw AJ standing next to Josh and Sarah, who seemed to be facing each other specifically.

"Just remember to keep soul energy flowing through you at all times, alright?" The green soul said to the one with the ponytail. "It'll keep you from getting seriously hurt."

"Right!" The persevering mage said before looking at the younger boy with a grin. "Ready!?"

"Yeah!" Josh answered and raised his fists in a fighting stance.

"I'm assuming you're new to this sort of thing, so just take it slow. No need to rush into the level of fight me and Alex had." AJ said.

"No, do that! Don't be boring!" Alex commented from the sidelines.

The purple soul started with a step forward and a swing of her right fist, and the boy raised his left arm to block. She took another step and swung with her other hand, and the boy stepped back and blocked with his other hand. Sarah raised her right leg in a straight kick, but the boy used both hands to stop the attack short. She suddenly quickened her pace and did a 360 spinning heel kick, but the boy was quick to duck under it. As he ducked, the fingers of his hands glowed with magic and teal vines stretched out from his fingers. Her eyes widened as the vines shot past her and she realized she was about to be trapped. She let out a scream and panic-shot purple goo from her hands that hit the boy in the chest and knocked him onto his back as it expanded and trapped him on the ground. She immediately let out another shout as the force of him being knocked down caused the vines to hit her from behind and knock her onto the ground as well.

The kind mage stared down at both of them. "Congratulations, you both lose." He deadpanned.

There was a moment of silence before the three of them all laughed.

Josh stood up with a grin after Sarah had dissipated the magic gel. "Don't worry man, I'll get her next time."

"We'll see about that." The purple soul responded as she stood up as well.

"Just go for more than two seconds this time." AJ requested with a smirk. The two of them started up their casual spar again while he glanced over at the oldest teen, sitting in the corner and observing the fight. As shy as he was when it came to starting a conversation, he figured he should at least say _something_ to the guy. "Hey!" He saw the blonde's eyes turn to him. "You wanna join in?"

"No." Adam answered.

"You sure? It'd be something fun to do." AJ pointed out.

The older boy stared at him for a few moments in thought before standing up. "Fine."

"Alright!" The kind mage stepped away to give the other fighters some space.

"I'm not using my magic though, so you can't use yours either." The older boy said as he approached.

"Fair enough." AJ responded.

Frisk sighed in annoyance. "I was hoping we would all talk and make new friends, not spar…"

"Well… they seem to be enjoying it." Lilly noticed.

"I know… I just wish we were friendly friends instead…" Frisk responded.

The shy girl took a moment to gain the courage to say the thought she had. "A-Aren't _we_ … friendly friends?"

The younger one turned to her with a surprised look. "Yeah!" She exclaimed happily. "We're friendly friends! If I want to be a friend and you want to be a friend, then we're friends! And we actually talk to each other instead of hitting each other for fun!" She suddenly gained a serious glare. "You don't secretly want to fight as well, right?"

Lilly leaned back a bit and smiled awkwardly. "Uh, n-no, don't worry."

"Yay!" Frisk cheered. "Do you mind if I hug you?"

"Uh, yeah, a little bit." The blue soul admitted hesitantly.

The determined soul calmed herself down. "Oh, okay. I won't then." She said understandingly.

Lilly looked past the child at the others. Four of them were sparring while Alex was nagging them all and trying to get them to fight more intensely. "Um…" She trailed off, unsure if she should say anything. "I think… he might be right, about magic."

Frisk hummed in confusion. "Hmm?"

"He said that magic might, might make people learn the traits and stuff." Lilly continued. "I think he might be right."

"Why?" The red soul asked curiously.

"It's just that… I can use my magic to tell if someone is telling the truth or not." Lilly said.

"Really!?" Frisk asked, surprised.

"Yeah, a-and I think that something like that would, would make people be more truthful, and… have more integrity." The blue mage explained.

"Well, I guess that would." The child responded.

"You don't think that's what magic is for?" Lilly asked.

"I might if there was something about each trait that does stuff like that, but I don't really get how my magic makes people more determined." Frisk explained.

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" Lilly said hesitantly.

"Hey! It's him!" Someone shouted.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to the source of the voice, where they saw three guys that were clearly of the local gang who had just been walking by when they noticed the mages. One of the three looked familiar to Frisk, AJ, and Josh.

"That's the guy?" One of the other two asked.

"Yeah!" The guy pointed at the green soul answered.

"The hell's he doing here!?" The third asked.

"Who cares!? Let's get him!" The first said, and they all pulled out knives before rushing at the group.

Adam frowned at the group of thugs. "I'll handle this."

As he said that though, AJ was already walking past him to meet the gang head on. "AJ! Wait!" Frisk shouted fearfully.

The boy slowly pulled out a strange metal hilt from his back pocket and held it to his side as he approached them. He used his thumb to slide the dial just below the red button, and he smirked as he pressed said button.

*Thunk!* *Thunk!* *Thunk!*

The three thugs dropped like stones as the soul energy flowing from the hilt held the form of a green frying pan, a frying pan that he had just beat them all over the head with. Frisk sighed in relief that he didn't use the sword like she was worried he would for a moment.

"Ha!" The green mage laughed. "You guys are even more stupid than I thought, going at a group of mages like that!"

"What is that thing!?" Sarah asked curiously as she ran up next to him and stared at the strange tech he had in his hand.

"It's just something Alphys invented." AJ answered.

"How does it work!?" The older girl asked enthusiastically.

He pointed at the device. "Little computer inside, controls magical energy and makes it take whatever shape it has programmed on it, dial changes the shape, just press the button and let your soul energy flow in. There's a machete, hammer, frying pan… although the pan is just a weapon right now cause magical energy doesn't conduct heat…"

"You know that beating them up is only going to make things worse, right?" Josh pointed out.

"I think these guys just need to get used to not being the most dangerous thing around." The older Dreemurr responded.

"Believe me, that's not how they work." The teal soul responded.

"Well, anyway, we should probably leave and go somewhere else." AJ said before turning to Sarah. "That is, unless I'm allowed to just go home now…"

"What? Are you kidding!? We've barely gotten to know each other yet!" She responded with a smile before turning to leave the basketball court. "Come on! I know a much less dangerous place to hang out at!"

The kind mage grumbled before the entire group moved on to wherever Sarah was taking them. It only took a few moments for Frisk to be walking next to AJ.

"I want to say that I'm annoyed that you went straight to violence instead of trying to talk to them…" The girl trialed off for a moment.

"But?" AJ said.

"But, I remember how things were in the Underground. I dodged and tried to talk things out, you defended yourself but thankfully listened to me and didn't try to really hurt anyone. I shouldn't be expecting things to be any different up here." Frisk finished.

"Yeah, I've told you repeatedly that you can't expect everyone to be as much of a pacifist as you try to be, and yet you keep getting like this when I do what I have to. Like, seriously, those guys were already coming at us with knives, there was no talking that out." The boy pointed out.

"I know, I really can't help it. I just feel like the Underground showed me that there really is a peaceful solution to everything, and it's just really annoying when you and others fight. I'm sorry I always yell when you do stuff like that, because you're right, you're just doing what you had to do. I promise that I really am trying to not do that anymore." Frisk said.

"What do you mean 'trying'?" AJ asked with a smirk. She gave a confused look up at him. "When you said to wait, that sounded more like you were worried about me than annoyed that I was about to fight. That's more than trying."

The child smiled a little. "Good, I hope so, because I've been trying to think about this as much as I can so I can stop acting that way. Sometimes you have to fight to stop a fight, I know that… I just don't like that I know that." She admitted with a frown before gaining her brighter smile again. "Besides, I knew I could trust you there. You fought without really hurting them."

"Yeah, exactly. I just knocked them out." The boy responded. "I only do what's necessary."

* * *

 **And then they went and became more friends somewhere else. I'm not writing everything…**

 **I found a way around the dialogue by having fight scenes to take up some space. I'm a genius.**

 **Not really. Anyway.**

 **Sorry this took so long, it was hard to write this chapter, mostly cause I didn't want to, but I knew I needed to, cause these characters need to actually be in scenes to have some character… BUT, it's over now, and I can finally move on.**

 **Hope you all somehow enjoyed, and I hope you have a very good day, and a great week!**


	30. Hidden Power

**So I may very well be done with school, for the time being if not forever. All that means for you guys is that if I ever want to write, there's no school responsibilities in my way! Laziness and video games could still get in my way, among other things, but I certainly** _ **have**_ **the free time to write. Now I just have to use it!**

 **Now, I still have many more things yet to be revealed in my AU to show to you all. Should I start my 'no-schooliness' by showing you one of them? Or should I just leave you guys with slice of life stuff for now?**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **I'M JUST KIDDING I'M TOTALLY GONNA SHOW YOU SOMETHING!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.30

* * *

"We don't know what we don't know, and that goes double for magic." – Doctor Alphys 201X

"What the hell are these things!? Why are they living here!?"

"I don't care if these 'monsters' are supposedly 'nice', I want them gone!"

"It's been a month! Why are they still here!?"

"I can't believe this! How can you people be getting used to this!? They shouldn't be here!"

"I'm glad I'm not the only sane person left in this city! SOME people understand these things don't belong here!"

"How are they still here!? These monsters are ruining everything! Why did you all get used to them instead of chasing them out while we had the chance!"

"That's it. I can't take this any longer. These monsters need to be taught a lesson. This should have happened when they first got here."

Frisk and AJ weaved their way between people as they walked down a sidewalk in the middle of the commercial district.

"You know, it was actually kind of fun hanging out with those guys yesterday." The teen commented with a bit of a smile.

"Yeah!" Frisk agreed with her usual bright smile.

"You sure talked to Lilly a lot." The boy noticed.

"Well she would have been left out if I didn't." The young one responded.

"Well it's good that you did that. She seems nice and looks a bit lonely, but… she's so shy that I kind of feel bad trying to talk to her and I just kind of leave her alone. As long as you're her friend though." AJ said.

"She is nice once you get to know her!" The girl said happily. "Though… she told me she's kind of scared of you."

"What!?" The older one said with a hurt tone, stopping in his tracks for a moment. "But I didn't do anything…"

"It's not that. She said she's afraid cause we're so well-known and stuff." Frisk corrected. "Mostly you, since everyone still thinks you got us out of the Underground."

"Ugh, I know." AJ grumbled. "I keep telling them it was a team effort, even though I still think you did most of the work."

"Don't you dare! I'm not arguing about this again." The girl warned.

"I know, I know…" He responded immediately.

"Anyway, I told her not to be scared of you and that you're really nice like me, so maybe you can talk to her next time!" The determined soul wondered hopefully.

"Or you could be there with me and the three of us could be friends instead?" The boy suggested.

"Or maybe we could _all_ just talk instead of _fighting_ _each other_!" Frisk commented.

"But it was _fun_ sparing with everyone!" AJ countered.

"It was our first time hanging out and you all ended up sparing, that's weird!" She explained.

"Well I've never 'hung out' with people before and I wanted to avoid all the awkward social stuff!" The green soul said defensively. "Don't have to worry about being awkward when you're sparing!"

"Honestly, I can't believe I'm actually in a group of friends like this." Frisk admitted.

"Believe me, I've been thinking the same thing." The older one admitted as well.

"I mean, I'm trying to be friends with all the monsters, but… I've never had so many people as friends before." The child continued.

"Yeah, I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to hanging out with them." AJ said. "I'm still ready for them to turn out to be terrible, but…"

Frisk smiled. "I don't think they're going to be bad. They're all gonna be good friends before you know it!"

They turned to the door of Sarah Cinnamon Buns and went to open it.

"I hope so." The teen said before opening the door.

They were so busy talking that they didn't notice it until they walked in, but the place was entirely filled. Not only was every last seat being used by a variety of humans and monsters, but there was actually a line to the front desk that almost reached to the door.

""Whoa!"" The human Dreemurrs exclaimed.

The resounding noise of the chatter throughout the café was nearly overwhelming, and it took a moment to get used to it. Despite their awe, they couldn't help but smile at the sight of so many humans and monsters in the same place, many even interacting together. Places like this were a clear sign that it was physically possible for humans and monsters to get along. This happened because of a shop and a few months. What would come out of a few years, or even more?

"HUMANS!"

At the sound of a voice as unique as Frisk's literally golden eyes, the two humans turned to see a tall skeleton with a blue apron over his usual attire. Papyrus stepped away from the table he was standing at and stopped chatting with the two humans seated there to walk over to his friends.

""Papyrus!?"" They both exclaimed in surprise.

"IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU TWO TODAY!" Papyrus said with a large smile.

"Since when do you work here!?" AJ asked, confused.

"OH! I DO NOT ACTUALLY WORK HERE, THOUGH I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU COULD BE CONFUSED. I SIMPLY VOLUNTEERED WHEN SARAH SAID SHE NEEDED MORE HELP!" The skeleton explained.

Said rabbit woman sighed in annoyance before leaning around the line of waiting humans and monsters. "I absolutely hired the fool! He just refuses to accept the payment!" She shouted. She made a mental note to herself to make an actual note to herself later to buy more seating so people can wait outside the building if things get this cramped again.

"I DO NOT NEED MONEY! THE SMILES ON PEOPLE'S FACES IS ALL THE PAYMENT I NEED!" Papy said proudly.

"Well… as long as you enjoy your job I guess?" The older human said with a shrug.

"Yeah!" Frisk agreed with a nod. "Now put that tray down so I can hug you!" She requested with a grin.

Papyrus blushed lightly and let out a laugh. "NYEHEH! WILL DO, FRISK! GIVE ME JUST A MOMENT!" He went off into the back and put away the tray before coming back to the human with wide open arms. "I AM READY TO RECEIVE MY HUG!"

The door to the café suddenly flew open and a man in a dark hood barged in and leveled a rifle at everyone. "Learn your place you DAMN MONSTERS!"

The entirety of the café turned and screams rang out as the next few seconds went in extreme slow motion. The older teen's heart was pounding out of his chest, his breathing was quickly increasing and his and everyone else's eyes were wide with terror as they all understood what was happening. The energy within his soul reacted to the thoughts within his subconscious mind.

"GET AWAY!" He screamed. His body acted on his own and he shot his hand out towards the stranger. His soul energy built up around his soul far beyond what he was voluntarily capable of, the soul glowed an incredibly bright green, and the floating heart teleported to be just within the grasp of his outstretched hand.

Then all the energy collapsed on his soul and exploded.

A green pulse of high powered magical energy shot out in all directions, and for nearly everyone in the room, it felt like a strong gust of wind that rustled their hair and clothes. The assaulter, meanwhile, was sent flying through the still open door. In the moments that he was hit with the blast, his rifle turned green before falling apart into green powder midair and vanishing before it hit the ground.

"Are you okay!?" AJ asked immediately as he spun around to see the people behind him.

Frisk was frozen and didn't answer immediately, she was shocked by what she was seeing. Her friend's eyes had changed. The color of the iris remained the same, but his pupils had been replaced with a small, glowing green heart. "Whoa…" The hearts faded away and his eyes returned to normal, so she shook her head clear. "Y-Yeah… I'm okay."

"Y-YES." Papyrus answered.

"Y-Yeah."

"Yeah."

"What was that?"

The people behind them answered, many still too stunned to move yet. The boy looked back at his hand and tried to get himself to stop shaking. "H-How _did_ I do that?..."

The stranger slowly pulled his head up while he laid in the middle of the street and scanned the ground. "H-Hey! Where the hell's my gun!? What did you do to my gun!? I paid for that damn thing myself you bastards!"

The green soul stared at the man in confusion. In the back of his mind he knew that just the thought of this person nearly killing Frisk along with all these other people should have made him furious. He knew he should be overcome with rage and trying to do things he would possibly regret later, and yet he wasn't. The kindness in his soul was pulsing stronger than ever, and he was entirely satisfied with just stopping the attacker.

The gray haired man that stepped outside and pulled out a hidden pistol did not feel the same way.

The old man slowly approached the assaulter, who was still finding it impossible to stand up for some reason. The downed man glanced up and became fearful when he saw the pistol and the look on the man's face.

"You know, you're just the kind of person I'd want dead." The man commented with a southern drawl. "I always thought people like you were so lucky that I wasn't there when you shot up some place, and now here you are… Yeah, I guess you were stopped this time, but I still got half a mind to kill you right now for what you just about did." He trailed off as his 1911 was raised at the man's head. "Thing is, I got my own problems. Apparently everyone's afraid of us Justice mages, they think we're gonna shoot someone soon as we feel like it, so I guess you're gonna keep bein' lucky." His hand glowed the faintest yellow and he spun and holstered the weapon in the blink of an eye. "You didn't kill anyone this time, so I'll use this chance to show people what justice really means. It means you get what you deserve, and I'm gonna enjoy watchin' the police take you away." He said with finality and a crooked grin.

"Huh… guess that shows that age means nothing for magic." AJ whispered.

The older gentlemen turned and glared at the teen, making him jump.

"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by that." The man started walking towards him. "It's just that I began to wonder if there was limit to the age of someone who could become a mage, and with every day that's seemed less and less true." The man stopped in front of him as he continued to ramble. "It was just an observation, not meant to insult you in any way." There was a long moment of silence where the man just stared at him.

He then let out a chuckle before speaking. "You don't have to say sorry for a damn thing, boy. You saved everyone here before I could see what was going on and draw my gun. Good job." He pat the boy's shoulder before walking back outside to keep an eye on the hooded man and call the police.

And while some were in still in shock, a few others had already recovered and were hugging each other and crying in relief, and at the sound of the gentlemen's kind words, the poor teen was attacked by a flood of thank you's from everyone. Monster and human alike were all trying to hug him and shake his hand and he was amazed he wasn't knocked over.

Then as fewer said "Thank you", more who kept up with the news about magic began asking once again "What was that!?" "How did you do that!?" and he could only answer that he didn't know. He had never done that before and had no idea how he did so. He looked back on the moment and tried to explain it in words, though it was difficult.

"It was like… I just felt some need to keep everyone from being hurt, and that need just kind of… manifested itself? Maybe? I'm not really sure… All I know is when I felt that, a huge amount of soul energy came out, and if there are any other mages here, you probably know that you can only draw out so much energy per second. Well the energy that came out on its own was _far_ more than I could bring out on my own. And then, did you see my soul? It just moved on its own to my hand and then all the energy just _exploded_!" He exclaimed, still in disbelief that had happened. "And it vaporized his gun! Like, what the hell!?"

On that note, a few people approached their assaulter and went to start beating him up. The older gentleman stopped them, saying that he understood what they wanted to do, but that it was also unnecessary at this point. Then the hooded man started ranting about how the monsters and everyone who associated with them would burn in hell and-

"Yeah, alright, go ahead until he shuts up." The older mage said.

The police eventually arrived, took the fanatical one away, asked everyone questions about what happened, news crews showed up, and it was the big event of the day in Onyx.

But among other things, this event showed that there was more to what human mages could do than they thought, and they wondered if there was anything else they didn't know.

* * *

Later that night, when the human Dreemurrs had gotten home, AJ went to one of his favorite places to go on the internet when he needed to relax. Ever since the monsters had come along, a few people in Onyx had taken to doing pictures with members of the monster race. Eventually it led to a web page where some professional photographers that had become good friends with monsters had begun posting some amazing pictures of the monsters. From some simple pictures of a gathering of Froggit's to pictures of ecstatic fans taking selfies with Mettaton, to beautiful pictures of monsters posing with unique filters and amazing lighting.

This page was enjoyable, but what the boy really liked was the page that was created not long after this one. Another group of artists in Onyx found inspiration from the monsters, but this time it wasn't photographers, it was physical artists. An entire page was dedicated to digital art and traditional art done by artists of all levels of skill, although there was no denying that some of these artists were incredibly talented.

He had discovered this page first when he got a link from a fan telling him about the page. The first thing he saw was actually a very detailed drawing of a Froggit, followed by a well-done cartoon version of Asgore, and eventually he even saw a beautiful painting of Toriel. The page filled with art pretty quickly, and it was clear that artists were big fans of the monster race. It actually didn't take long for him to notice drawings of him or of Frisk, and he couldn't help but wonder about the people who had passed him on the street and took a moment to say hi and talk and ask questions. He couldn't tell at the time, but some of them had been artists and their talking to him led to them apparently drawing him. Almost all of them apologized for drawing him without asking, but he said he didn't mind as long as the art wasn't disrespectful, and all the monsters had said the same when they say this art-filled web page.

And so this page continued to fill with art of monsters, occasionally Frisk or himself, and eventually, mages. Oh how the page filled when mages became more common. All the abilities of mages were shown off with beautiful detail and color.

What he didn't expect was for something to catch his eye so immediately when he opened up the page. He did always worry a little when he realized he was in a drawing, but this was not something he had to worry about. The drawing was practically a snapshot of the events of earlier today, showing him spinning around with a concerned look and bright green hearts glowing in place of his pupils. The description of the picture was the artist telling about how they were sitting at a table near the door when it had happened and that sight had been ingrained in their mind. They set to drawing it and trying to replicate exactly what they had seen as soon as the event had passed.

"Whoa…" He turned and showed the picture to Frisk. " _This_ is what I looked like?"

Frisk looked at the picture for a moment before nodding. "Mhm."

"That is… really weird." He said, wondering why that had happened to his eyes, and if it meant anything.

* * *

 **The Soul Magic AU still has quite a few things to show you all, and not all of them are abilities either, though you'll find out about that soon enough. I kept secrets after all, even if I posted about this elsewhere, I didn't tell everything.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope you have a great day/evening/night/morning.**


	31. Forgotten History

The area that would become the town of Onyx had actually been discovered long before the man with the lucky onyx stone found it. Though, the people who found it back then were not interested in the area they were overlooking.

No, what these two dirty men at the beginning of the gold rush were interested in, was the strange structure they found when they decided to check the other side of a mountain.

It was a little more than half way up another mountain that was part of the range Mt. Ebott sat in, though there was nothing between it and the ocean. If the two men cared, they would have thought it a nice view. They turned away from the edge and observed a view somewhat… stranger.

This structure was a strange square made of stone, with lots of different runes, predominantly spirals, carved in the stone. The square was large enough to be a sizable house, though they noticed that there was no way into the structure. It was just a solid square.

The men did not care much about who might have placed this here, they cared only about the possibility of treasure inside it. They thought it was obvious, why else would this be here if it wasn't to hide treasure?

And so they went to work, chipping away at the large stone blocks that made up the object, destroying the intricate carvings built into them.

Except they didn't.

No matter how many times they hit a point on the structure, no matter where they hit, they never left a mark on it.

They worked until their axes had broken, and only after trying to break through the square object with a rock for an hour did they finally go back to their camp on the other side of the range. There they met up with their friend who they knew for a fact had explosives with him. They told him about the weird object they found, how it was made of stone but wouldn't chip to anything they did.

Their friend thought they were both crazy, but he decided to come see whatever they'd found and blow it up, just to show them the thing wasn't "unbreakable". He found it to be a good start when he saw the thing was at least real, but he knew it wouldn't be around for long.

The dynamite created quite a crater, and the three of them could not believe their eyes when the dust had fully settled. The men cried "Sorcery!" and fled for their lives. Despite the crater, the structure was undamaged, uncracked, unscratched.

But what truly scared them for the rest of their lives when they thought back to that event, was how there was no dust on the stone structure. The dirt that had been kicked up did not stuck to the stone, did not get stuck in the carvings, did not settle on top of it.

Science has yet to prove how this building was found many years later after Onyx had been founded _in perfect condition_.

Plants had not grown around it. It had not decayed or collapsed. It had remained just the way it was when those men found it, and maybe the way it was when it was first placed there.

Sound waves do not penetrate it. They cannot tell what it is made of. One scientist studying the structure even commented one day that she had never seen a bird land on it.

You may be surprised how many things in this world go unexplained by science, but you wouldn't be surprised to find that it lists high in the list of anomalies that have never been solved.

You also shouldn't be surprised that when all this studying led to the discovery of no deadly radiation, no poisons, and no ancient curses, the place became a tourist attraction the likes of a gas station in Nevada. There's even an unspoken rule that people don't really care if you go at the thing with a hammer or some other tool, because years have proven this mysterious structure immune to damage.

People all around the world, especially those of the nearby city of Onyx, love to give their theories on the unbreakable stone object. The most common are of course aliens and an ancient race. As much as they love to talk about it though, the locals have generally accepted that there is no point trying to figure it out. It's fun to wonder, but it is obvious that single stone object is unknowable, and nothing we do will likely ever give us answers. The people of Onyx do, for some reason like to agree that the place has a door, somewhere. Tourists can never tell if they're making fun of them or if they're being serious. But if it has a door…

To this day, it has never been opened.


	32. Experimenting With Destiny

**No of course I didn't take a week+ just to write that tiny chapter I posted yesterday. I was just waiting till I was done with THIS chapter to post that one before it! Idk I'm weird.**

 **I'm also really passionate right now all of the sudden so I'd just like to say real quick DON'T EVER STOP BEING PASSIONATE! YOU MAKE THAT ART! YOU WRITE THAT STORY!**

 **DO**

 **THE THING!**

 **I hope you all enjoy and I hope you have a very good day (and great week)!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.32

* * *

The next day, the humans decided to spend the day relaxing. They didn't feel that they had quite recovered from the events of yesterday yet. After breakfast, they had started their relaxing with watching some TV in the living room.

At one point Frisk tried to get up, only to find she couldn't. "Um, AJ…" She looked down at the arms that were wrapped around her and keeping her from getting out of his lap. She noticed he hadn't responded yet. "AJ?" She looked over her shoulder and saw the boy was staring blankly out the window. "AJ." She spoke up.

Another moment passed before he blinked and seemed to realize she had been speaking. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I was daydreaming. What is it?" He asked the child.

"Well, I'm trying to get up, but you aren't really letting me." She explained while tapping on his arms like they were drums.

"Oh!" He exclaimed and immediately released her. "I'm sorry! I, I just…" He let out a sad sigh and wrapped his arms around himself. "I'm just still scared is all. We nearly… died, and it's still really hard to get that thought out of my head."

They had both had a few nightmares since they got to the surface, and both of them had talked about them and the thoughts that come from them. "The thought of losing you is terrifying" had been said by both of them plenty of times by now.

She turned around so she could hug him, wrapping her arms tight around his neck. "I know, I know." She said softly. "But, it's okay. No one got hurt. We're both fine, and isn't that all that really matters?" She asked with a smile.

He smiled back after a moment, letting out a small chuckle as he pat her on the head. "Yeah… right." He agreed. "I'm…" He trailed off for a moment and decided not to say it. "Just gonna shut up and let you go now." He released the young one again and she slid off the couch. "Why did you want to get off the couch, anyway?"

"I left my phone upstairs." She answered.

"Oh. Well fair enough then." He responded.

With that she went up the stairs and only took a few moments to be down the stairs again, phone in hand. "How about we play something to take our minds off that?" She suggested.

"Sounds good." AJ responded.

Since she was already standing, Frisk went and grabbed the remotes for them. They settled down to play and started up their world when the older one's phone went off next to him. He sighed in annoyance before answering the call from Alphys.

"Hi so I worked like for the entire day yesterday and I apparently missed something serious are you two doing alright?" The lizard said all at once.

The boy stayed silent for a moment in case she was going to say something else. "Y-Yes, we're fine." He answered.

"Would you be willing to talk about what happened? People have been saying you did something new with your soul?" Alphys asked.

"No, I'd really rather not talk about it right now. I just wanna play some games with Frisk today." AJ answered.

"Oh, alright. I understand." The monster scientist said. "I'll call tomorrow."

And she did. She was very curious and she wanted to know all there was to know about Soul Magic. New information on the topic was very interesting to her. She called twenty-three hours later, barely a minute after the human Dreemurr's had woken up.

"H-Hey! AJ! So, um, I'm calling about that new magic you did, l-like I said I would…" Alphys said awkwardly as soon as the phone was answered.

The boy sighed. "Yeah, right, okay…" He slowly stood up from his bed and stretched. "But, I mean, there isn't really that much I can say over the phone, you know?" He pointed out.

"Oh, well I know that of course." The lizard said with an awkward chuckle.

AJ's eyes widened. "You didn't." He hung up and walked down stairs and opened the front door, where he saw Alphys awkwardly smiling up at him. "Alphys! I thought you said you'd call, not show up unannounced!"

"I-I'm really sorry! Honestly, I am!" Alphys responded. The boy stepped out of the way so she could walk in. "I-It's just that I wanted to actually see for myself what new power you discovered! Everyone has been saying that you created some sort of explosion!"

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but I can't really do whatever I did again." He pointed out.

"Wait, whaaat!?" The doctor asked disappointedly. "What do you mean you can't do it!?"

"That move, whatever that was, used more soul energy then I've ever brought out before! Not only can I not bring out that much energy at once, but I don't know how to make my soul move around like that." AJ explained. "Believe me, I really tried, but I'm not even sure it's something I _can_ do voluntarily. It sure isn't how it went last time!"

Alphys crossed her arms and looked down with a determined expression. "There has to be a way for you to use that move yourself. You've done it once now, so there has to be a way to learn it. It can't just be something that pops up whenever it feels like it…"

"Well I doubt I'm going to learn it over time, considering that my maximum rate for drawing out soul energy has never really changed." The tall one pointed out. "There's, like, literally an energy gap here. Don't see how I can do it."

The monster's expression turned to one of disappointment. "Well, if you ever get any ideas or totally figure out how to do it when you want to, let me know. It's a shame I came here for nothing though…" She said as she turned to leave.

"Well you could make it something!" Frisk spoke up, and the monster stopped and gave her a curious look. "Why not come in and hang out for a bit? We have some games that I'm sure you'd like!"

Alphys smiled at the girl for a moment before her expression suddenly changed. She stared at Frisk for a moment, then AJ, then both of them as he eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh my gosh! I got so excited about magic that I completely forgot!" She exclaimed, surprising them. "Could you guys spare some time for a little idea I had?"

"Well, how much time and what's the idea?" AJ asked. "Cause we had big in-game plans today."

"Well it will take hopefully no more than an hour if the plan doesn't work, but if it does!" She said with a louder voice that indicated her excitement. "Who knows how long it could take!? The whole day for all I know!"

"The whole day? I don't know…" Frisk commented, unsure. "What would we be doing?"

"Well, do you remember the indestructible stone building?" Alphys asked.

"What?" The boy responded, confused as to why she was asking. "Alphys, we already know your theory doesn't work. Not only have _we_ tried, but many other people have said they went up there, tried to use their magic, and nothing happened."

"But that monument _has_ to be related to the humans that lived here with ancient monsters! What else could it be?" Alphys countered.

"I don't know!" He answered with a shrug. "What are we going to do different anyway? Why do you want to go back?"

At that question, the lizard looked down in embarrassment and blushed slightly. "W-Well, I-I know it's kinda anime, but I was thinking that maybe… maybe you need seven mages using the seven different human soul traits to get the place to do something?"

AJ squinted at her. "Alphys, there is no way. That would be awesome, and ridiculous, but there is no way."

"I already called the other mages and told them about it, and Sarah said they'd help since you guys are apparently all friends now?" Alphys said, surprised by that detail.

"Yeah, she made us all get together and try to be friends." The boy deadpanned. "Turns out they're not that bad, though." He admitted.

"Look, I know it's a silly idea, but I can't help but wonder if it would work. Can we please head up there and try so I can stop wondering about it?" The monster scientist asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Look, as stupid as the idea is, I want to see if that rock does anything, too." He answered, and Alphys smiled gratefully.

"Oh good, thank you! Here's hoping that there really is something amazing in there!" She said.

"Yeah, well, I was hopeful with that thing last time and it didn't really work out." AJ commented.

"Oh don't be like that!" Frisk said with a grin.

"Hey, like I said, I'd love for it to do something, but I'm honestly just looking forward to this taking an hour so we can get back to building stuff." The boy responded.

"Well what if something cool happens?" The child asked.

He shrugged. "Then I guess something cool happens."

* * *

Toriel drove the humans and Alphys to the path up the mountain that would lead to the famous tourist attraction. Two few other vehicles met them there, with Josh stepping out of one, Alex, Sarah, and Lilly out of the other. Adam had already been there and was standing around waiting for them. The adults that had drove them there were wary of Toriel and Alphys, so they stayed behind while the rest started up the mountain path together.

Sarah found her chance to get next to AJ as the walk began. "So you and Alphys have been up here before?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah. She thought it was pretty obvious that mages and that building must be connected, and I thought it was obvious too, but then nothing happened when I used magic on it. Alphys let people know that, but other people still tried anyway, and it didn't work for them either." The taller one answered.

"But she thinks all of us can do it?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, she kinda had some anime level magic destiny idea and she wants to try it so she'll know if the crazy idea works or not." He explained.

"But wouldn't that be awesome if we did all had some great destiny together!?" Sarah asked enthusiastically.

"I mean, I guess, but you know how it goes with anime like that, right? I'd rather my life get _less_ chaotic, not more." AJ responded.

The girl shrugged. "I guess, but I'd like to have some cool destiny, myself." She said with a smile.

"Well please, be my guest and go on some magical journey without me." The kind mage deadpanned while gesturing up the mountain.

"What!? That's no fun! We gotta all go on that journey together, all of our friends!" Sarah responded passionately.

"I don't know. Who actually wants to go on some magic destiny thing together?" AJ asked everyone.

He looked to his left at Adam, who shook his head without actually looking at him. Alex gave him a dirty look. He looked back at Josh who just shrugged like he'd rather not. Looking to his right, he saw Sarah's arm raised high, and Frisk had stopped talking with Toriel to raise her hand as well.

He gave Frisk a deadpan stare.

"What? It might be a fun one for all we know." Frisk responded.

"I would be alright with it, as long as it was not dangerous." Toriel commented.

"Anime destinies are always dangerous." AJ pointed out.

"Oh. Well then I am not alright with it." Goat Mom said.

"AJ!" The determined one whined.

The green and teal mages chuckled.

"Don't you worry, Frisk! If we do have some destiny together, than its destiny, and you can't stop destiny!" The persevering soul said with a smile.

"Oh yeah, that's right! Yay!" Frisk cheered, and the two of them high-fived.

"Hey, so what's that thing on your side? Looks like a camera or something." Josh asked.

"Oh! It's, uh…" He trailed off and looked to Alphys, who was walking at the front of the group. "Alphys, are you _sure_ it's alright to tell them now?"

"Yep, I'm sure!" The lizard answered with a smile. "I plan to reveal them all to the world tomorrow, so a bit of an early leak won't hurt."

"Alright, if you say so." AJ responded.

"I was gonna ask about those too!" Sarah cut in. "I noticed Frisk has one too."

"Well, quite simply, it's a hologram projector." The kind mage answered.

Sarah gasped. "No way!"

"Pfft. Yeah right." Josh responded.

In response, the taller boy silently turned on the device, which immediately began producing a thin veil of blue magical energy in front of him, with the middle of the veil being thicker than the rest, as it was the screen he could interact with.

"I guess I shoulda kept my mouth shut." The patient mage deadpanned, to which the others laughed. Mostly Alex, who laughed at him, loudly, so loudly they didn't notice Lilly letting out a quiet chuckle behind them all.

"How does it work!?" The purple mage asked interestedly.

Alphys looked back at them with a bit of a proud smile. "Well, you see, I work with this stuff called 'Magic Tech', and it's basically technology that takes advantage of the fact that particles of magical energy are programmable. A computer takes data from the sensors in the projector that recognize the optimal distance and height for the person using it, and project magic particles in front of you in small amounts, that way you can still see through it."

As the monster scientist was explaining this, Sarah noticed the "Games" folder and pressed it with her finger. She made an excited noise when the hologram responded to that and went to the list of games. Josh noticed this and squinted. "Wait, so how does it know that you touched it and like, respond to that?" He asked.

"Well not only can magic particles be programmed to move to a specific point, they can actually hold data. It's part of their programming to pay attention to physical contact and then send that data back to the computer, so it can respond to that and open up the next screen, or do whatever touching the screen would do in the games I programmed in." Alphys explained.

AJ gasped in realization. "Wait, so, that light laser that connected us to let us play the co-op game, that was the projectors trading their data through magic particles?"

"Exactly!" Alphys answered. "I also just thought it was nice to have an extra way to exchange information between holo-projectors that wasn't tied to the internet and wifi speeds." She added with a chuckle.

"So are those things gonna replace phones or something?" Alex asked.

"Oh absolutely not! The phone companies would never allow that!" The short monster answered with a laugh. "Even besides that, they both have their pros and cons. Looking at your phone is less obvious than using holograms, and you actually get the full range of colors. Holograms on the other hand let you do more, and you don't have to worry about dropping and losing the projector, because it's always attached to your shirt!"

"I can totally just yank that thing off you though." The brave mage pointed out.

AJ turned towards her. "Actually, you can't-" He was not able to say more as the mage used her increased speed to quickly dash behind him and grab the projector and yank it hard as she jumped away from him. The projector did not detach from his shirt though, which caused her to trip backwards while pulling on his shirt so hard that he fell backwards as well. He picked his head up from the dirt after a moment and frowned at her. "See what I mean?"

"What the hell?" Alex complained as they both stood back up.

"You see, I figured out this little, uh… 'trick', I guess you'd call it, relating to magic and the stuff clothes are usually made out of. I call it a trick, but it's actually a _really_ complicated process, so I won't bore you with the details." Alphys said awkwardly. "But what's important is that the process by which it sticks to your shirt creates a really strong force, and I made sure the process could only be turned off in your settings, instead of a button which people could just press and then run away with the thing."

Unable to think of a way around that, Alex let out an annoyed huff.

Sarah's eyes widened at an idea. "Oh, hey!" She said to get the green mage's attention. "Since we got the whole group here right now, why don't we all go hang out after this!?" She suggested.

"No way. Me and Frisk's plans have been interrupted as it is. We're going home after this." AJ answered.

"Oh. Well how about tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.

He heard Frisk's voice behind him and looked back to see that Frisk was talking animatedly with Lilly, who was listening to the child with a slight smile on her face. He didn't know much about the girl after just being in the same group for a few days, but he felt that she could use a friend, especially one like Frisk. "Alright, fine." He said, keeping sighs and any annoyance out of his answer.

"Great! I know this place we could all go that makes some really good fries!" The persevering mage said excitedly. "Oh! But they've got plenty of other things besides fries, in case anyone here is on a diet." She said to everyone.

AJ chuckled. "I don't need a diet." He commented.

"N-No, you don't! You're perfectly fine the way you are!" Sarah said quickly before noticing his smirk. "Oh, _oh_ , you're one of those lucky people with a high metabolism, right?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, but that's not it. This doctor that's working with Alphys wanted to see what monster food did to people, so he asked me to eat only monster food for awhile, and I agreed, cause I don't really care. He figured he'd notice something within a week if monster food really had nothing that human food has. Instead, he noticed my body greatly improving by the end of the week! Turns out monster food literally substitutes everything your body needs at the moment." He explained

"Seriously!?" Sarah asked, completely shocked.

"Which I already figured, honestly, since I'd noticed myself feeling just… better, in general, ever since Toriel made magic food apart of my meals almost daily. But yeah, it's a great excuse to just eat a whole bag of chips if I want to." AJ said with a chuckle.

"Well, I'm incredibly jealous." Sarah admitted.

* * *

"We're almost there." Alphys spoke up. Everyone looked ahead and noticed the closed gate ahead of them. The metal stood out as it stuck out the side of the mountain to block the path. They noticed a sign on the front of the gate.

"Wait, it's closed?" Josh asked, confused.

"Yep." Alphys answered before fishing a key out from her pockets and opening the gate with it. "It's treated like an amusement park and it's closed off at certain times of certain days. Don't ask me why." Everyone followed her in. "The mayor gave me permission to try this out today, so we won't be bothered by anyone."

The group broke up and walked around to observe the place. The strange stone building was more or less in the center, though slightly more towards the mountain. The view from the cliff sadly had to be lessened with a large fence, since it is a safety hazard. The only other thing that made the area different from before Onyx had existed was the souvenir shop in the corner near the gate, and the paint on the floor around the artifact, marking another failed attempt to spray paint the building by some kids.

"This is an interesting little place. Why have we not come here before?" Toriel asked her children.

"Cause there isn't anything to the place besides that it can't be explained by science. The thing remains completely unchanged, and while that's cool and all, that doesn't make it really worth a visit." AJ responded.

"You don't think any place is worth a visit, though." Frisk pointed out.

"Yeah." He agreed. "You could send me to Paris and I'd just take some pictures before wanting to go home."

"Nah. This place has always been lame." Alex commented as they stared up at the stone square with swirling and wavy runes covering it. "It's just some rock that can't crack." She threw an orange attack at it, leaving no mark on the wall. "Whatever."

Adam noticed this and raised his arm towards the stone. He fired two lasers at it, which also left no mark. "And you think all our magic will change this?"

"Ehhh… More like hoping than thinking." Alphys responded hesitantly as she walked up and touched the stone. "The only known records of the ancient humans are with the monsters, and all of them are burnt to the point of being barely legible. And with all the monsters that were around back then long gone, there's so little that we know about them anymore. If I were to get exactly what I want out of this, it would be that you guys all work together on this, and the thing opens up and reveals itself as a secret library full of everything they ever wrote. Though I… I know better than to get my hopes up, I don't really expect it to be like that."

"So what do you want us to do?" Sarah asked curiously.

Alphys and AJ glanced at each other. "Honestly, we're not sure what you would do to open this." The monster admitted with a shrug. "When we tried the first time, I just had AJ put his hand up to the wall and make soul energy flow into it."

"So we all just have to gather around it and do that?" Sarah asked for confirmation as she started walking up to the structure.

"Uh, basically, yes, but wait. I have to call sans first." The lizard said as she pulled out her phone. "He said he wanted to be here in case something worth seeing actually happens." The skeleton answered after a moment. "Hey, sans?... Yeah, we're here. You can come over now, and bring the equipment, please."

A few seconds later, a short skeleton in a lab coat teleported into the center of the area. Along with him, he had teleported an odd machine that was slightly taller than Alphys. It consisted of a long metal rod with a large glass orb at the end of it, with four cylinders around the pipe, and rolling around together on four small wheels.

"Hey guys." Sans greeted with his patented grin.

"Heyo." The green soul greeted back.

"Hi, sans!" Frisk greeted with a wave.

"What's that thing?" Josh asked.

"It's a large projector that I designed specifically for 3D modeling its environment, and believe me, it used to look much less appealing." Alphys answered as she examined the machine to make sure everything was ready.

"How was it worse?" The teal soul asked.

"Well I had all the space I needed for the computers and the projector, so I put it all in a metal box! Then I realized that looked ridiculous and I had some extra metal lying around, so I decided to at least try to improve the look." Alphys explained. She squinted when she noticed a random object sticking out of the side of her machine. "Sans, why is there a cup holder right here?" She asked, squinting at her partner in science.

"Because quite frankly, the world needs more cup holders." Sans answered.

*Squinting intensifies* "Did you at least get the other thing I asked for?" Alphys asked.

"Of course." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin, flexible black pad. "Here's your holo-pad, thing."

The lizard took the pad and placed it on her arm before wrapping the straps around her arm to lock it in place. "Excellent!" She pressed the button on the side to confirm that it worked, and a holographic projection appeared in front of her, floating over the pad. "You can act like the goof off lab assistant around others all you want, sans, but you and I both know that you played just as big a part in developing these as I did." She said with a smirk.

The skeleton scratched the back of his skull in embarrassment. "Well, you know… I like to try _sometimes_."

Alphys chuckled at that while going through a few screens on her wrist-mounted projector. "I can only imagine the things we would have made if you tried more often."

Sans shrugged. "Well, you're the visionary trying to change the world. I'm content with life, personally."

"Well, I don't blame you for that. Who wouldn't be after being in the Underground?" The lizard asked rhetorically as she walked up to the stone structure. She pointed the pad up towards the stone wall, and the lens sticking out the front of the pad created a flat field of light that ran down the wall like a sci-fi scanner. She continued shuffling down the wall until she had scanned the entirety of it.

"Whoa! Dude!" Josh exclaimed excitedly when he noticed this. "That's just like in Andromeda!"

Alphys was focused on her work, so it took her a moment to realize that was being directed at her. "Huh? Oh, yes! I uh, I did take inspiration from a few video games, when I started designing these… Though this doesn't actually scan what it's made of or anything. It's simply sending out magic particles and then taking in the data the particles send back when they stop moving and stick to a physical object." She turned to the boy and had the pad on her arm create a hologram showing the wall she had just scanned. "This is basically a smaller version of what my new machine will do. 3D modeling of an area will be really easy now. If there's an inside to this thing, I'll be able to know exactly how it looks and be able to look at the hologram of it when I'm back at the lab."

"Well let's get on with it, then!" Alex said, getting bored.

"Right, of course! All mages, please stand in front of the building." Alphys requested, and the humans did just that.

"Be careful, children!" Toriel called out.

AJ rolled his eyes. "We'll be fine, Toriel." He said with a grin. "I doubt this is gonna do anything to us."

Lilly glanced at her friend next to her. "D-Do you think this will work?" She asked.

"I don't really know." Frisk answered. "I'm hoping something cool happens though!" She added with a smile.

"So, uh… go ahead and just put your hand on the wall, and make your soul energy flow into it." Alphys requested.

It couldn't be visibly seen, but all seven mages were actively pushing a steady flow of energy through their arms and into the stone structure. Despite this, they did not feel anything happening. As far everyone could tell, nothing was happening, at all.

"So is something gonna happen, or what?" Alex asked impatiently.

"Maybe it needs more power." Adam guessed.

"Well how much more would it need, then?" Sarah asked.

"I'm not interested in standing around and feeding this thing for much longer." AJ commented.

"I don't know, man. I don't think this is gonna work." Josh said.

"Yeah… I'm glad I kept my hopes down for this." The green soul said with mild disappointment.

"Oh come on! Don't give up yet! Maybe if we give it just a few more seconds!" Frisk spoke up.

"Tch. Screw this." The orange soul stuffed her hands in her pockets and walked away from the building.

AJ glanced at Alex before shrugging at Frisk. "Sorry, but that's kinda the end of it." With that, everyone stopped and stepped back from the structure. "Maybe we can get more people some other day, when this was planned, but I'd rather go home now."

Alphys let out a disappointed sigh and scratched the back of her head. "Yeah… it was a silly idea, that one-of-each destiny stuff."

"Well, at least we tried it." Sans commented.

"I needed to know for sure." The lizard agreed.

Frisk looked down and let out a sad hum, which the blue soul noticed. "…Sorry nothing cool happened." Lilly said.

"It's okay." Frisk picked her head up and smiled. "I'll just go home and have fun playing games instead. Besides, I still believe we have a destiny, a destiny to be friends!" She exclaimed happily.

"Yeah!" Sarah overheard this and cheered in agreement before raising her hand up high. The child jumped all the way up and delivered a solid high five. "This girl gets it!"

The blond one stared at the stone for a moment and hummed in thought. "I have to agree with you." He spoke, getting Alphys' attention. "I can't see this being anything other than the ancient humans."

"Exactly!" Alphys exclaimed. "Now the problem is what the heck this place does, and how to make it do it."

With nothing else to do, they all headed back down the mountain. Though "all" did not include sans, who teleported back to the lab with the machine. The others all slowly split up and went their separate ways once they made it back into town. They continued their days as normal. Frisk and AJ had another fun day of gaming, and Alphys continued passionately experimenting into the night, which she then spent studying the holographic recreation of the wall she scanned. She eventually fell asleep at her desk, surrounded by notes and the charred remains of ancient human manuscripts.

* * *

Late that night, the ancient stone building hummed with energy, and the carvings in its sides glowed with white light. As it did so, the seven mages were plagued with the same dream.

Strong winds. Biting cold. A snowstorm. They walk on despite it.

They reach a wall of light. They pass through it. There is no wind or snow on the other side, just light.

Their eyes adjust, and they see two welcoming faces. A human and a boss monster dressed for warm weather.

They look out at the large village in front of them, sitting in a relatively small valley surrounded by mountains.

They look up and see the massive dome of light that protects them all.

They wake up.


	33. This Is Normal Now

**We'll get back to the events of last chapter soon enough. Just thought I'd do a thing real quick. I'll just say it now, I wanted to write a chapter focused on the things that are normal now thanks to soul magic, but then most of the things I was going to write about were either too crazy, or I suddenly decided that they belonged in their own chapters, soooo this chapter is a lot shorter than it was going to be.**

 **So this chapter is just a random jump around in time for some random things. Don't worry though, cool new stuff coming next chapter.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.33

* * *

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." AJ said angrily.

"What?" Sarah asked, confused.

"You're 'safer place' is the high school!?" AJ asked, pointing at the large cluster of buildings in front of them.

"Yeah." The girl answered. "What's wrong with that?"

"It's a school." Adam commented while lightly glaring at the main building.

The green soul gestured at the blond. "See!? Even _he_ gets it!"

"Of course I get it." The oldest boy commented immediately.

Though AJ was already talking over him. "Besides, I don't think we're allowed in the school when winter break is still going. I know it's almost over, but it's still basically closed, isn't it?"

"What? No!" Sarah said with false confidence. "I'm sure we're allowed in!"

Frisk suddenly gained an excited smile and she tapped the shoulder of her closest friend. "Well? Is she lying?" She whispered.

"Huh?" Lilly look confused for a moment. "Oh. N-No. It doesn't work like that."

"Well show me how it works then!" Frisk whispered insistently.

The blue soul looked worried for a moment before shyly stepping up to Sarah. She reached out and touched a single finger to the skin of the older girl's hand. There was no noticeable glow or change in color.

Sarah looked down at the girl in confusion. "Lilly? Do you want something?" She asked.

Lilly suddenly gained a serious look while she stared at the other girl's hand. "Do you really know if we can go into the school without getting into trouble?" She asked.

The purple soul's eyes widened slightly at the question before smiling assuredly. "Yeah! I know we can go in!"

"You _don't_ know…" Lilly realized. She grabbed the girl's hand and held onto it. "Do you even _think_ we're allowed in?" She pressed.

"W-Wha?... How do you- I, um…" Sarah stammered in surprise and confusion, and she noticed everyone was staring at them, but she felt like they were all staring at her. "Look! They let us use the track so I figured we'd be allowed to hang out in the rest of the place but I don't actually know, okay!?" She admitted.

"Whatever. I'm not staying near this school." Adam said.

"Yeah, no, it _really_ doesn't matter cause there is no way we were hanging out in _that_ place anyway." AJ pointed out. "Also, what did you just do?" He asked Lilly.

"Integrity can tell if people are lying, apparently." Frisk answered. "Guess she has to touch them to do it though?" She asked, and Lilly nodded.

His eyebrows rose in shock as he let out a chuckle before grinning up at the sky. 'We have living lie detector mages.' "And this is normal now?" He commented.

Sarah crossed her arms and pouted at Lilly. "That was kind of mean to do to me, you know." She complained.

The glasses-wearing girl looked down shyly. "I-I'm sorry… I just, I don't like it when people lie." She said.

* * *

To his surprise, an extremely small amount of people requested teaching at the dojo once the videos came out, despite him still offering to do so. He expected more people to need a quiet place to work, and he frankly worried mages throughout town weren't getting the peace and quiet needed to properly listen to the video and focus on their magic. He simply had to hope that the videos were enough. And he knew they were. How? Well you can't deny the evidence.

It became more and more clear each time he left his home. If he was on his way to help Alphys and sans, random people would suddenly come running up to him just to show them that they had learned some new soul magic ability. It was that or just show him how easy it was for them to generate their beautiful soul flames. Regardless what they did, they always had such a happy and proud look on their faces. He was right when he said the world was becoming much more colorful thanks to mages. He was never once irritated with such vibrant colors being shoved at him. He was used to it after all.

And even when they weren't showing off to him, they were showing off to others, to friends, to family. When he'd take a walk into the commercial district for some cinna-buns, he would see even more vibrant colors. Some people were acting a bit silly and thought they could make magic shows out of what they could do, which Madjick didn't appreciate. Others had grouped together with other new mages and were excitedly showing their abilities to each other. From groups of excited mages, to loners, there was a lot more color to be seen here as well.

Of course, all this showing of power and all these new abilities frightened many others in Onyx who did not share in the early swarm of soul mages. Depending on the part of town you were in, and depending on the people around you, you may have found people giving you dirty looks for showing any magic powers. And once they knew you were a mage, the looks came back every time they saw you. Some children were told by their parents to never use their powers, some told to hide them from others. Some groups of people were vocal about wanting magic banned before anything bad happened. But no mages responded immediately with hostility. Instead, a movement started up on the magical side of the residents of Onyx.

#LetYourColorsShow

If you posted that on social media these days, you were saying that you were a mage who pledged to not only _not_ hide their abilities, but to openly, and _proudly_ , go about their day with their soul showing. For such a small thing that doesn't even glow brightly in daylight, its vibrant color makes the floating heart incredibly noticeable. It clashes with the usually dull colors of normal clothing, and also infuriates those who dislike the mages. This was their show of defiance, their response to oppression. They made it clear that they would not be held down by anyone.

And so all these vibrant colors did not go away, instead, the sight of them is normal now.

* * *

"Excuse me… young man?" AJ was stopped in his trip through town by a man who looked to be in his fifties, and a little girl who couldn't have been older than Frisk, holding his hand.

"Yes?" All his time dealing with people randomly approaching him did not make him a mind reader. Especially with people like this guy, he couldn't tell if he was about to lecture him about magic was dangerous and should be banned, or if he was going to thank him for something. He had a feeling it was one or the other though, they seemed to have been searching him out. The girl could have been someone either helped or hurt by magic, evidence of whatever gentleman wished to speak about. He hoped this man had the dignity to not rant in front of her if she was just coincidentally here, but that hadn't stopped some people.

"I'd like to thank you…" The man started.

AJ sighed in relief internally, though he was still ready for the sentence to do a turn real quick.

"I know this will sound strange, and some would say I shouldn't even be talking to you about this, but I still feel I should." The gentleman continued. "I still feel that you indirectly saved my life, by letting this 'magic' into town."

The boy was of course curious as he was confused. "How so?"

"You see, my granddaughter here, Rebecca…" The girl smiled and waved up at the teen. "She had gone to one of those all day classes to teach magic, and she said you'd told everyone to be responsible with their magic, to never use it to harm someone unless it was self-defense, and to be careful with it even then, so they don't hurt someone badly. Being that she's such a good kid, she took that to heart, and even if she showed off her new powers a lot, she was very careful to never hurt someone or break something. Then one day, while I was working on my car, the thing collapsed on me. She heard this, ran over to me, and was able to slowly lift it enough for me to get out. And I suppose that thanks to some 'butterfly effect' nonsense or whatever, maybe if mages weren't a thing, the car would have never fallen… but all I know for certain is that situation would have gotten much worse if the kid wasn't able to lift the thing. I've given it quite some thought, and I honestly feel that you and that other kid deserve some thanks for that."

The boy stood there with a surprised look for a few moments, unsure how best to respond to that. "Well, I'm... glad you're okay."

"Rebecca, isn't there something you want to say to him, too?" The man said to the girl, who nodded in response.

"Thank you for helping me be able to save my grandpa." She said.

AJ smiled. "Well thank you for being so careful with your magic, and doing good things with it." He responded, and the girl smiled brighter.

And that was honestly normal for him. The part about saving lives was a bit new, but that was only slightly abnormal. The fact was that ever since the beginning, people had approached him and Frisk when they'd see them on a normal day. Walking down the street, a surprise sighting in a store, passing by at school. They would be, and have been, approached by countless people. From the crazy and not crazy fans, and haters, to people who were simply curious or confused and wanted to ask questions. As the weeks went by those lessened slightly, then as it turned to nearly two months later those stopped being almost daily occurrences. From the beginning to now, though, there's always been the random monster that comes up to thank them for allowing them to see and live in the surface. They were both used to strangers randomly approaching them by the time more mages started becoming a thing.

* * *

There was another occurrence they were used to, even if it was much rarer. Like the older gentlemen, sometimes other humans came up to say thank you. The only reason people did it early on was someone thanking them for freeing the monsters, sometimes because they appreciated how they did the right thing, but sometimes because that person had become great friends with one or several of the monster race. It was always nice to hear. As time went by, more of those rare "thank you"s came from people whose lives had improved in some way by the presence of the magic that humans performed with their souls. Some were thankful for finally having something more special about them, some found the abilities very useful for their daily jobs, or it had made it possible for them to pursue a certain job. Some were simply thankful for the cool abilities, or how colorful daily life is with mages walking around and using their abilities for whatever purpose they wished, or just proudly showing off their magic-filled soul. Because all this was normal now, and it was becoming normal for more and more places, though it would likely take around a year for people all over the world to see the sight of magic as normal.

But for those who had lived in Onyx for the nearly three months since The Barrier was broken, seeing a fish woman and a short red head competing to see who could lift and carry the most of their friends had already become something the people would loosely call "normal."

* * *

 **So um, this is kind of random, but… how've you all been enjoying this story? It's been awhile since I asked for ideas for chapters, and I know what I'm going to do for the next few, but… now that you guys have a better understanding of the world and the AU… You guys have any new ideas? Anything you'd like to see? Questions you'd like answered?**

 **And about that last one. I'm the one creating all this, so you guys might think up some questions I never thought to ask since I already know stuff, (I can think of a few questions, but I know I won't think of everything), so if you let me know, I'd try to keep it in mind for the future.**

 **Now to actually start writing the next chapter(s).**

 **Have a great week everyone!**


	34. Descension

**Thankfully, not dead.**

 **So just like last summer, I ended up taking an unplanned break from posting for most of the summer, sorry about that. Unlike the last one, I actually was writing most of the time, it's just that my writing mood was** _ **really**_ **finicky and I never actually wrote that I much when I tried to. Hopefully that was just for this chapter. Oh and video games, lots of video games. Basically I was just enjoying the summer and trying not to worry about things too much.**

 **But still I am SO sorry for not posting for so long!**

 **Just so you all know, the Undertale OST can't fit every scene so I will be breaking away from UT related background music more and more (esp. for fight scenes), so uh… you guys are just gonna have to live with that.**

 **Time for the long overdue chapter.**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

 **(Also I** _ **thought**_ **about splitting up the chapter since it's so long… but then I thought… nah. Then I wrote another four thousand words and decided… okay maybe splitting it in two wouldn't be bad XD)**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.34

* * *

Frisk woke up quickly and sat up in her bed. She looked up and noticed that AJ had done the same. She stared in confusion as she thought about what she'd just seen, then spoke up. "A-AJ?"

He looked up at the sound of her voice. "Huh? Oh, hey Frisk. I uh, I need to call Alphys real quick." He said. He looked around him and blinked the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to find his phone.

"I had a weird dream." The child said to him.

He stopped at that. "Yeah? Me too." He paused in thought for a moment, though he did his best to not jump to conclusions. They'd never had weird dreams the same night before, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. "What was yours?" He asked as casually as he could.

"Well um… it started in a lot of snow…" She started slowly, doing her best to confirm her own memories. "Then all the snow went away, and I was in front of some village or something… There were some people in front of me, I think one was a Monster, one like Mom… Then I looked up for some reason, and it looked like there was a big bubble over the town or something… and then I woke up."

He stayed silent for a moment to take that in before going back to finding his phone. "Yep, I'm calling Alphys."

"Why? What was your dream like?" The girl asked curiously.

He found and picked up the smartphone. "The exact same as yours."

Frisk blinked twice in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, which is why I think Alphys needs to know about this." The boy answered as he sent a call to the resident nerdy lizard.

"Hello AJ? What is it?" The monster asked.

"Hey, so Frisk and I just woke up from having the same freaking dream, and-"

"Oh, hang on one sec. I'm getting another call." Alphys interrupted before pulling away the phone. "Huh. It's Sarah. Why's she- What the! Josh is- Wha- Alex now!?" She stopped talking as her phone cycled through a few more contact names, and her eyes widened at a shocking realization. "AJ, I think all your mage friends are calling me right now."

"What?" The teen responded in surprise.

"What did you say happened with you and Frisk?" The doctor asked.

"We had the same weird dream, and we both woke up at the same time, too." He answered.

"Huh…" Alphys let out a noise of acknowledgement as she looked at the calls she wasn't answering. "You think that happened to all the others as well?"

"Well, if they're all calling you right now, maybe." AJ responded.

The lizard's eyes widened at a realization. "Oh my god my experiment did something." She mumbled.

"Sorry what?" The boy commented.

"My experiment actually DID SOMETHING! HAHA!" Alphys cheered. "What happened in your dream?"

"Uh, well there was snow, then we got out of the snow and we were in front of some village, and there were some people in front of us, a human and a monster, and then there was some magical dome over the place." The teen explained.

"Yes! I knew it!" The female monster exclaimed before her excitement faded just a bit as she looked around her lab. "Darn it, and I was going to make my reveal video for the holograms today…" She then shrugged with a chuckle. "Welp! Too bad! I need to get us all back up there so we can see if anything changed with that stone building!"

"Well, I mean just because we had this dream doesn't mean anything's happened up there yet." AJ pointed out.

"Well we won't know till we find out, will we!?" Alphys responded. "I'm going to call the others back and tell them to head back up there, you do the same."

He went to respond to that, but she hung up before he could, leaving him with little to do but sigh.

* * *

Alphys was in a hurry to get up the mountain again, so the others had no time to walk and talk. She did, however, find a moment to give Frisk and AJ new holo-projectors that she had apparently added new features to. Toriel had a meeting with Asgore and the mayor coming up soon and could not go with them. The rest quickly arrived at the site and found sans was already waiting with the machine. Though he had hardly noticed them as he was too busy staring at the ancient structure. The etchings covering the building were all glowing with magical energy, white light with just a hint of blue. What was most interesting however was the perfect vertical rectangle of a hole in the front of the building, revealing that the structure was, in fact, hollow.

Alphys' mouth was agape for a few moments as she took in the sight. "Th-The experiment did this, right? Like, having the seven traits put magic into this thing did this, right?" She asked the skeleton next to her.

"Maybe." Sans answered with a shrug. "Hard to tell though. Might just be coincidence, you know?"

"You think so?" The lizard asked.

He smiled. "Nah, not really." His answer got Alphys excited again. "I got the feeling this ain't a coincidence for some reason."

"Me too!" She agreed. She turned to the humans, who were all gathered in front of the "door" and peeking inside. "H-Hey! No one go in there yet!"

Everyone turned to look at her. "Why?" Alex asked immediately.

"Because we need to let the machine scan the interior first, and it can't scan through people, so there need to be as few obstacles as possible." Alphys explained as she rolled the machine up to the entrance. "You can all come in and look as soon as I've gotten a 3D scan of the place." She added before pushing the machine up the inch difference between the height of the stone floor and the dirt floor.

She pushed the machine into the center before pressing the on button. She looked around while she waited for it to start up. She noticed that the place truly was hollow, and interior was just one room. It was nearly empty aside from the four support pillars spaced evenly apart. The only light inside was what came in through the entrance, as even though there were plenty more engravings in the interior walls and ceiling, none of them were glowing as they were outside.

Once her machine was ready, the orb displayed a holographic screen down at her level. She used it to start up the surrounding area scan sequence before quickly leaving the ancient building. The orb at the top of the machine created a thin veil of magical light that slowly spread outward in all directions. The magical particles slowly came to stop as they touched the walls, ceiling, floor, and one side of the support pillars, covering everything with a thin layer of magic particles. The machine took in the data the particles sent back before pulling the veil back in and dissipating it.

"Well that was a pretty light show." AJ commented.

"That did look really cool!" Frisk agreed.

A hologram appeared just above the orb on the machine. "Alright, you all can come in now!" Alphys said as she walked in before them. She walked up to her large holo-projector and pressed a button on the side of it. The projector moved the hologram it was showing to her level on that side, where she turned on the holo-projector on her arm before grabbing the 3D model of the room and moving it to her arm. The pad produced a veil of magic around the model, and she was now able to walk around where she pleased and the model would stick with her. She spun around the holographic box with her free hand, and zoomed in on the walls to the point of being able to read the carvings on the walls in detail.

The others, meanwhile, dispersed and looked at those etchings more personally. Lilly had gone over to a corner and was staring at them with interest. She didn't know what they were or what they meant, but she wanted to know. Sarah and Adam had separately gone about looking at every corner, with one quite openly interested in finding secrets, and the other quietly trying to figure out the purpose of this place. Josh was standing next to Alphys, going between looking around him and looking at the holographic model she had.

Alex stepped into the center of the room, standing next to the machine. She took one good look around her before commenting "Yep, just as boring inside!"

"We don't know that yet…" Alphys commented as she and the teal soul stared at the hologram. "Some of this might be something important."

"What do ya mean?" Josh asked curiously.

"I mean that while much of these carvings are clearly more of what was outside, some of the more compact carvings are text, text I recognize." Alphys answered.

"You do!?" Sarah asked, surprised.

The monster scientist smiled. "Yes, and without a doubt, this is the same language that the ancient humans wrote with."

Those who cared, that is to say all but Alex, were surprised by this.

The purple soul gasped in excitement. "Really!? What does it say!?"

"I don't know yet. I'm not totally versed in the language so I need my notes to help me translate. But while I find those… Frisk, AJ, the model is incomplete and it's really annoying me, so could you please fix that?" Alphys requested.

"How?" Frisk asked, confused.

"Just connect your holo-projectors to the machine, and it will temporarily give them the ability to scan things and sent the data to the machine so it can complete the model of this place." Alphys explained. They nodded before going to do just that. "I knew the pillars would block the scan, but I figured I could live with it." She chuckled as she turned back to the wall in front of her. "Nope, that's just going to annoy me every time I look at the thing. Then I'll want to fix it later, but the only way I'd do that is if I came all the way back here just to scan things, and it's stupid to come here just to do that."

"Do you normally talk to yourself?" Josh asked.

Alphys jumped out of her thoughts and blushed in embarrassment. "Y-Yeah…" She admitted hesitantly. "I've been trying not to, but it helps me understand my thoughts more clearly."

"Hey, I'm not judging, don't worry." The patient mage commented with a smirk.

The lizard looked back at the model, only to see it get replaced with an updated model that didn't have four dark marks in it where the model was incomplete. "Oh! That was fast." She looked over her shoulder. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" Frisk said back.

"No problem." AJ said as well.

"Alright, so… here are my notes!" Alphys said as she pulled up the file that would help her translate the language. It was a large page that required some scrolling back and forth to get everything, but she slowly managed. "Uh, I'm gonna need some more light for this. AJ, come here, there's a feature in those updated projectors you might like."

The green soul walked up next to her. "Which is?"

"A flashlight, well, sort of." The doc answered.

"Oh, really!?" He asked with a surprised smile. He remembered one of the times he and Alphys had gone back and forth with ideas on what they could add to the list of things they could do with her hologram technology, specifically what features they could add to the projectors you carry around.

"Yeah, there's a flashlight mode in the menu somewhere, although I know there a lot more things in the menu to look through." Alphys commented, sounding sorry.

"It's fine, I found it." AJ pressed the light bulb symbol to turn on the "Lantern Mode". The projector created four softball sized spheres of magical energy, and these projections were programed to be much brighter than usual. The orbs floated close in front of him at waist level, generating light blue light around him and lighting up a decent portion of the etchings on the wall. "Huh, cool!"

"The projections can only go so far, and they can't really project light at a distance like a flashlight can. You see, a flashlight has its light source, but it also has a lens that it uses to direct the light out forward and-" Alphys cut herself off. "Th-The best I can do with holograms is generate light around you, like a lantern. Oh! But you can actually grab one of the orbs and hold it out in front of you if you want!" She added.

"Really?" The kind soul asked as he reached for one of the spheres.

"No!" She stopped him. "Uh, u-use your left hand, it's a better angle that way, your arm won't block the projector as much." She explained.

He nodded and picked up a sphere with his left hand and held it up higher, illuminating even the higher portion of the wall. "Man, this is just so cool..." He commented with a smile.

"That's a C, okay…" She got self-conscious about talking to herself, so she did her best to do the translating in her head.

The others had quickly figured out that there was nothing that interesting to them here. The swirling glyphs on the walls meant nothing to them, so they had all gathered around the scientist as she silently worked. Sans had never delved into the work of the ancient humans, so he could do little to help. He was still standing at the entrance with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He wondered why he bothered sticking around after delivering the machine, but he knew that he should be there with Alphys. Being there with your friends when they're enjoying themselves is nice, after all.

"So you're totally gonna give us all one of those things, right?" Josh asked the lizard, pointing at the taller boy holding the ball of light in his hand.

"What? No, you're gonna have to buy them of course." Alphys answered like it was obvious.

"Whaaat!?" Sarah complained. "Come on! You gave them to Frisk and AJ!"

"Well they're good friends." The female monster answered.

"So are we!" Sarah argued.

Alphys raised an eyebrow at that, though she couldn't help but smile in amusement. "They were helping me test the projectors, so they get to have them early. Look, I'm sorry, but I can't just give these out for free. Your government has made it clear that they won't support my work much longer if I don't think up something they like, and our gold isn't going to last us forever, so I need to really start making money, just in case."

"Pfft. Don't need to explain yourself, she's the only one begging for one of those things." Alex pointed out.

"Are you telling me you _don't_ want one of these!?" Sarah asked the red-haired girl in disbelief.

"Yeah. I mean, what good is that thing, anyway? I have a phone." The brave mage responded.

Alphys turned away from her work to look at Alex. "While I do agree that nothing it has is absolutely necessary right now, you should at least consider the possibilities. I mean, your cellphones started off with very little versatility as well, right? Even I don't know what I'll be able to make these holo-projectors do in time! But still, just look at what they can do now! I mean they can make 3D scans, they allow you to-"

"Uh, Alphys?" Josh cut in. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think _this_ is something you actually shouldn't bother explaining, at least not to Alex. She doesn't like using her brain or dealing with anything too complex for her." He said with a smirk.

"HEY! No one asked you, Joshy!" The orange soul shouted angrily.

"Well I… honestly should be focusing on the translating, not getting all passionate about stuff." Alphys commented before looking back at the holographic notes.

"No!" Sarah exclaimed, pointing at the lizard. "There is nothing wrong with being passionate about something! Don't ever stop being passionate! Ever!"

"I have to agree with her there." Sans commented. "Your passion for improving the world that humans and monsters share now has led ya to make a few cool things already, and I imagine there'll be more."

"Yeah! Passion makes people create so many amazing things! And passion is what makes people light up when they talk about something they love!" She calmed down slightly. "I love seeing that light in people. That's why I'm so passionate about passion!" She explained.

"Is it also why you're always so loud?" Alex asked, annoyed.

The taller girl turned to her with a smile. "You bet!"

"And is your 'passion' why you're so happy all the time?" The orange soul asked.

"Oh no! That's just because I'm hanging out with all of you guys!" Sarah answered with a cheerful smile. "Also because I realized that there's no point to being mad about stuff, so I do my best not to be." She turned her head to the green soul. "And I know you don't like optimists, but I bet I can change your mind about that." She said with a confident smile.

AJ smirked at that. "Wow, you think you can make _me_ change? You really are an optimist." He responded.

"Yeah, I've been trying to make him be less negative ever since we fell." Frisk spoke up. "He doesn't listen much." She then noticed her friend Lilly was looking at something at the other side of the room, so she went over to see what it was.

"Oh so you're stubborn, huh? Sounds like a challenge to me!" Sarah said to the kind soul.

"You know you could just _not_ do that, and let me be myself?" He responded.

"Well I can't just let you be a negative-nancy all the time!" The persevering soul answered.

"I'm not! I'm only negative when I'm in a bad mood!" AJ pointed out.

"Yeah, I don't really get what you guys are talkin' about. He's usually pretty chill." Josh spoke up.

"Yes! Exactly! I'm perfectly fine as long as I'm not having a bad day!" The taller boy agreed. "And my only problem with optimists is that sometimes they act like there's no problem at all, when there is. It's why I say I'm a realist, cause they don't live in an alternate reality. And honestly, there really are no pessimists, just realists who are in a bad mood."

"I didn't say anything about pessimists." Sarah pointed out, confused.

AJ rolled his eyes before crossing his arms and putting his weight on one hip. "Whenever I talk about this stuff with optimists, they inevitably call a realist a pessimist, because god forbid anyone isn't constantly smiling like them."

"Yikes. I'm sorry you've had to deal with some extreme optimists." Sarah responded.

The boy let out a sigh. "Well I'm sorry for getting annoyed when you hadn't done anything yet. Besides, that kind of stupid is a minor thing these days. I've dealt with much worse."

"Like those people who think we're gonna start an uprising and kill everyone somehow?" Josh guessed.

AJ tilted his head in the younger boy's direction. "That's one example, yeah."

"Hmm!" Alphys let out a hum of intrigue, which got their attention.

"What is it?" Sans asked curiously.

"Well this text is quite plainly requesting that 'The seven who opened this' stand in the middle of the room 'to descend to the place of power and begin the recovery.' No idea what that last part means but it seems that I was, amazingly, totally _right_ when it came to bringing you seven here! It seems that they actually designed this place to only be opened by seven mages!" The Royal Scientist exclaimed.

"Wait, so we _do_ have a magical destiny together!?" Sarah asked excitedly.

"W-Well, I don't know if you all have a 'destiny' for certain. For all we know this would have worked with any seven mages. Maybe they didn't even care to have one of each trait? We don't really know, at least not yet." Alphys responded.

"That doesn't mean we don't have a destiny though!" The girl with the ponytail said before letting out a cheer. "WHOO!"

Alphys let out a sigh. "Science doesn't work by disproving things!" She pointed out, but the girl was already walking towards the center to join the red and blue souls, and wasn't listening. "Alright, so what is it about the center that's so special?" She asked aloud.

"Is it this?" Frisk asked, waving to get the monster's attention. She pointed at the floor and at the support pillars.

Alphys looked around and squinted as she tried to figure out what the younger humans were seeing. "Oh! How did I not see that?" Then she realized the etchings on the floor around her machine, and on the pillars, were not swirly and wavy runes like the ones everywhere else. Instead they were comprised of solid lines making random ninety degree turns all along their path. "I-I don't understand… Those look so different from the rest! How did I not see those before!? L-Lilly!" The girl jumped a bit at her name. "H-How long have these different carvings been here!?"

"I-I think they changed to this, when you guys all walked up to the wall." The blue soul answered shyly.

"They changed!? How in the world is that possible?" The royal scientist asked herself, shocked.

"I didn't see anything." Sans commented. "You think those humans from back then learned how to make magical buildings?" He asked.

"Well considering the one we're standing in was glowing when we walked in, I'm inclined to believe that…" Alphys admitted. "But how would they have made the etchings change like that?"

"Enough of that!" Alex spoke up, stomping her foot on the floor as she stood next to the machine. "Would you all get over here!? I wanna see this 'place of power', cause that actually sounds cool, unlike this stupid box!"

The others were curious as well and those who hadn't walked over already stepped onto the floor with the more blocky etchings. The moment they had done this, the lines on the four pillars began glowing. Magical energy seemed to be flowing through them.

"What the-" Alphys noticed that all but sans were standing within the bounds of the four pillars, and her eyes widened with worry. "Sans!"

The skeleton had already had the same thought she had. He broke into a sprint as soon as he could, but it was too late. Four barriers appeared and connected the pillars together, trapping the others inside. Sans looked on in fear as they all tried to find a way out. After only a few moments, the glow of the pillars intensified slightly, and the eight that were trapped found themselves floating against their will, along with the machine. It was as if everything within the barriers had been suspended in the air. For some reason, the holo-projectors that some of them carried had turned off.

With the few extra moments to think, Alphys came to a different conclusion than what had come from her initial panic. "S-Sans! Don't worry!" She exclaimed, raising her arms in his direction as she floated helplessly. She spoke with a weak smile. "I think we'll be alright! I think we're just going to-"

Before she could say more, the floor below them suddenly fell open like a hatch, and the group suddenly and rapidly descended into the darkness.

"NO!" Sans shouted before the stone floor closed up again and cut off the screams. He grit his teeth in anger and tried to teleport past the floor, but his expression turned to shock when he realized he couldn't. Something wasn't letting him get past the stone.

* * *

Meanwhile, the others continued to scream as they rapidly descended down the dark funnel for an unclear number of agonizingly long seconds. Their screams were then cut off when they suddenly decelerated two feet above the stone brick floor before the magic that held them released them, unceremoniously dropping them on the ground. The humans and monster let out an "Oof!" while the machine let out a loud *Clunk*.

"Is everyone okay?" Sarah asked with concern as she sat up.

"Yeah." Was everyone's answer as they all slowly stood up and dusted themselves off.

"Alphys… Do you… _feel_ that?" The kind soul asked slowly, looking bewildered.

Alphys glanced upward slightly for a moment. "I feel… magic!" She realized with wide eyes. "I _feel_ magic! It's just like the Underground!"

"Where in the world are we?" AJ asked, now officially curious.

(Waterfall – Undertale OST)

Where they were standing currently was a room the same size as the last, and made of the same stone brick, only this stone was entirely filled with etchings like the ones on the pillars. The room would be lightless for a few seconds before the etchings in the room would suddenly fill with magic light. That light would then immediately rush through the rigid carvings and out of the room, slowly traveling down the long corridor that led out of the small room. This drew their attention down the straight hall, where they saw a large white light in the distance.

"The place of power?" Alphys answered, unsure.

Alex let a breath out through her nose. "Doesn't look like much."

"Maybe it's further down?" Josh guessed.

"Well let's go then!" The orange soul said before going to run ahead.

"Hey, care to be a little patient?" Josh requested.

"No. I'm not a coward, like you, Joshy!" Alex responded before leaving.

"I'll go with her." Adam said before following.

"Yes, make sure she doesn't break anything, please!" The lizard requested. She watched them run off for a moment before sighing. "AJ, this lighting is annoying, can you turn the lantern mode back on? I want to make sure nothing has been knocked loose." She said as she opened up a small panel on her machine.

"Mhm." The kind mage responded and reached for the projector's power button.

"What about us?" Sarah asked.

"Well, just explore, really. Go discover something interesting and then bring me over. Oh, but please keep an eye on Alex while you look around. Make sure she doesn't touch something she shouldn't." Alphys requested. "Better yet, make sure she doesn't touch anything."

"I could go put her in a box?" AJ suggested.

"No, AJ, that will just make her angry…" The doc shot down his idea.

"Hey, guys?" Frisk spoke up, concerned. "Where's sans?"

Alphys glanced up at the pitch black funnel above them. "I'm not sure. He should have found a 'shortcut' down here. Don't worry though, Frisk, I'm sure he's fine." She answered calmly.

"WHOA!"

Everyone looked down the corridor where the shouting came from and saw the brave and just mages were stepping back from something. A small portion of the walls in front of them broke off, the pieces of stone floating in front of them. More and more stone began to break away and create a large clump of rock and magical energy. It continued to grow and grow as more and more brick broke away and fell into it, until it suddenly stopped. For a few seconds there was only the hum of the magical energy flowing down the corridor, but then the now massive clump suddenly began moving. The stone cracked and crunched against itself until it had taken the rough shape of two legs, then a body and two arms, and then a rough clump of stone that seemed to be its head.

Before them now stood a massive humanoid form made out of broken stone brick. Magical energy still traveled through it, seen moving through cracks rather than etchings. Stone grinded against stone as the head titled down to look at the two humans before it.

"The hell is _this_ thing!?" Alex asked with an impressed smirk.

Adam was still on alert and wary of this thing. "Looks like a golem from some video game."

"What's a golem?" The girl asked.

"A guardian made from rock and magic that would mindlessly defend an area." The blond answered.

"Oh! So this thing's gonna try and stop us, then?" Alex asked.

"Assuming it acts like the fictional ones." The yellow soul responded.

(Simply Silphy – By SharaX)

"Ha!" She laughed at the idea. "Well try and stop _this_ , ugly!" She pulled back a fist filled with soul energy before throwing an orange attack at the golem. The attack struck right in the chest and the guardian recoiled from the hit. Then it froze for a moment in that recoiled position before slowly standing up straight again. The magic flowing through it changed to orange for a moment before going back to white.

Adam glared at the girl. "You're an idiot."

"What!? What did I do!?" She complained, clueless.

They both looked down as their souls appeared, floating over their chests. The golem raised its right arm up high before suddenly bringing it down on them both. They jumped away to avoid it.

"You gotta be faster than that!" Alex taunted. The golem seemed to listen as it threw a sudden uppercut with the other arm that she had to use her magical speed boost in order to limbo under. "Whoa! Haha! Not enough for-"

The energy flowing through the golem had suddenly changed to orange and it used the same speed boost she had employed to dodge to deliver a sudden punch that sent her flying down the hall. She tumbled to a stop in the room the others were still in. They noticed a small crack in her soul.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay!?" Sarah asked fearfully.

"That's why you don't go provoking things, you idiot!" The green soul commented before turning to Sarah and Josh. "We need to help him! The rest of you stay back and-" When he looked back at Lilly, Frisk, and the royal scientist, he realized she was shaking. "Alphys?"

"It's happening… it's actually happening…" She mumbled.

"Alphys!?" The older teen shouted.

The monster jumped before turning to him with a fearful look in her eyes. "I-I have neglected to mention that I also had a strange dream last night. However, in my dream a big shadow came out of the ancient building and killed us all!" She looked back down the corridor. " _That_ was the shadow! I thought it was just a stupid dream! I thought I was just being stupid, I-"

"Hey, hey!" AJ put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll be fine. You just stay back here, alright?" He stood up straight and turned to the others. "Come on!"

"Wait!" Alphys shouted.

He stopped and turned to her. "Alphys, we have to-"

"Take these!" She cut him off before pulling out her phone and pressing a button on it. A portal opened up next to her which she quickly reached into and pulled out two familiar metal hilts and tossed them to Josh and Sarah. "Press the button and put your soul energy into it!"

They both pressed the buttons on them before Alex grabbed the one that Josh had. "Mine!" She shouted.

"Dude!" Josh exclaimed, annoyed, as an orange blur ran off down the hall.

Sarah gave him a sympathetic look. "Do you want mine?"

"Nah. You'll need it more than me." The boy said before running after AJ and Alex.

"Alright…" She hesitantly accepted that before running to follow him. "Hey, wait! What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Be careful!" Frisk called out.

The yellow soul fired three lasers up at the golem before it retaliated and swung with its right arm. He ducked under it and continued backing up at it cocked its left arm back for a punch. Adam shot a laser into its shoulder just as it swung, making it recoil back. It seemed to grow annoyed with him and its energy color shifted to orange. It quickly raised an arm to strike, but just then an orange blur shot past the mage. The golem quickly shot its arm down to try and smash the girl, but she slid under the attack and struck at its ankle with a blade of orange magic as she passed by. She quickly spun around and stabbed the blade into the guardian's ankle, surprisingly biting into the stone. She retracted the blade as the guardian spun around and tried to stomp on her. She jumped back to avoid the attack.

It leaned forwards as yellow lasers battered its back, then it turned back to face the boy as the magic within its cracks changed to a bright yellow. The golem raised an arm towards Adam, and his eyes widened before he prepared to find out if he could dodge lasers. The golem fired out large yellow bolts from its hand, but they collided with the green wall that had appeared in front of Adam. The blond looked behind him and saw the kind mage running up behind him and the others not far behind.

AJ noticed that the yellow bolts were quickly cracking his barrier. "Geez!" He exclaimed as he created another right behind it just before it shattered. As the new barrier began taking fire, he reached Adam's side, but rather than slowing down, he leapt over the barrier with his green blade raised over his head. The golem looked up at the airborne mage and raised its arm to block the incoming attack. The green soul landed on the large arm in his path and quickly jumped back before the guardian could retaliate. He landed next to Adam and created another barrier to keep the guardian from shooting them. Focused entirely on the fight, he saw a problem and wanted an immediate solution. "Alex! Hit it as hard as you can!" He shouted.

"Alright, first off! Don't you be givin' me orders!" Alex shouted back. The golem began firing lasers at the barriers in front of it. "And second!" The golem looked over its shoulder towards her and fired bolts at her with its other arm. The kind soul had seen this coming just in time and had created a barrier between the brave mage and the guardian. She simply grit her teeth when the lasers were stopped. "Was already gonna do that!" She shouted before readying her fists. The green soul dropped the barrier in front of her just as she began launching a barrage of orange fists at the golem.

It focused its attention on Alex before realizing that she was not letting up her attack. It raised both its arms in front of itself in a form similar to that of a guarding boxer.

Meanhwhile, AJ noticed a purple blur appear in the edge of his vision, and he turned to see Sarah staring up at the golem with a worried look, and a vibrant purple blade in her hand. "Where's Josh?"

The older girl hiked a thump over her shoulder. "He doesn't run very fast." She noted hesitantly.

The green soul looked back and saw the younger boy was only half way to them. He also noticed that the hall was much longer than it was a moment ago, in both directions. "What the!- Whatever, help me with this!"

Her eyes widened. "H-How?" She asked worriedly.

"Just get a running start and then-" His mind was moving so fast that he needed a moment to catch up with all the details of what was around him and what he could do with it. "Better yet! Get over to Alex and plant two of those wrapping wire traps on the ground!"

"What?" The purple soul asked, confused.

"Just do it! We don't have time!" AJ ordered.

Her expression changed to a serious one and she nodded. "Okay!" A purple blur rushed past the golem and stopped in front of Alex. A green wall appeared to block the golem for a moment as two pairs of fingers on Sarah's hand gained a purple light at the tips. She quickly crouched and placed the lights on the floor. Alex became frustrated with this distraction and jumped over the older girl. With an orange speed boost flowing through the arm, the golem's fist shattered the barrier and sent the short girl flying down the hall in one swing. The persevering mage's eyes widened before she rushed back over to the others as the golem turned to face them.

"NOW! Get a running start and then hit this thing in the chest with all you have!" The green mage shouted, pointing behind them. In no time at all, the girl had gained a short bit of distance and got in her running stance. In that time, the guardian had turned yellow and was raising an arm towards them. AJ knew Sarah needed clearance to hit it, a barrier wouldn't work with how fast she could go. "Adam!"

The oldest teen's eyes glowed yellow and he saw just where he needed to hit. He fired three rapid bolts, one hit the hand, causing the golem to flinch and leave an opening for the second shot to hit the elbow, and the third connected with the shoulder.

"Move!" AJ heard Sarah shout behind him, and he stepped to the side as fast as he could. His hair and cloak fluttered a second after a purple blur rushed past him and into the air before the girl crashed into the golem's chest feet first. The force of the hit physically lifted the golem off the ground, and the green soul jumped into action as fast as he could.

He jumped into the air and created a small platform below him, which he pushed off of to get higher. Meanwhile gravity caught up with the guardian and it came crashing down on its back. Purple wires shot up from under it and wrapped around it. By then the boy had jumped onto the platform he'd made right above the struggling golem, and there was only one thing left to do. He jumped off the platform as hard as he could and did a half flip so he'd plant his feet against the ceiling. He bent his legs as much as he could and prepared his magical blade before pushing off as hard as he could, thrusting the weapon downwards. "HAAAAAGH!" His blade went right through the neck of the golem and hit the floor. He stood on the golem as he tried to tear the blade through the side of its neck. "GrrrRAGH!" After focusing on pouring soul energy into his muscles he managed to pull the blade through the stone and out one side of the guardian's neck. He then immediately brought the blade back in a hard swing at the rest of it, chopping off its head completely.

The teen stood there panting for a few moments while everyone else was dead silent.

"D-…Did you have to do that in the Underground, or something!?" Sarah asked in shock.

AJ looked up at her. "What? No. I never killed anything. She wouldn't let me." He answered, stepping off the golem and slowly walking over to them.

"She?" Adam repeated.

"Frisk." The kind soul explained.

"Then how did you come up with that plan!? Like, that was so _fast_!" The purple soul exclaimed.

"Coming from you, that's rich." Adam commented with the smallest of smirks.

"I don't _know_. The plan was there from the beginning! As soon as that thing blocked me, I wanted to knock it down so I could take its head off easily. Then I was gonna say to help, but then your traps just kind of brought themselves to the front of my mind and I knew what we needed to do!" AJ explained, not knowing what else to say.

"Uhh…" Sarah leaned around him and looked at the stone body with worry. "Do we know that it's dead, though?"

They all looked at it for a moment. "Well, technically no, but most things tend to die without their head." The kind soul answered.

The next thing they heard was the golem's body slowly standing up. AJ turned to it while the rest were already staring with stunned looks. A large piece of the nearby wall broke off and clumped together before taking its place as the new head of the golem.

AJ blinked twice, his mouth agape and his expression being that of both shock, and outrage. " _I don't know what else to do, then_." He said angrily.

"Break the whole thing at once?" Adam suggested.

"How?" The younger boy asked.

The cracks within the golem flashed purple and then green for a moment each before turning back to white. Then its color truly shifted to purple and it raised its right arm high before smashing its glowing fist into the ground. The three mages prepared for what was coming when purple ropes suddenly appeared at their feet and wrapped around them, pulling them towards the floor. They struggled as hard as they could against the binds, managing to keep a knee firmly on the floor so as to not be pulled down fully.

"Come on, guys! You can break out of this, just… don't give up!" Sarah shouted before pushing back with all her strength and breaking out of the binds.

The golem took the two giant steps needed to reach them before swinging its right arm wide. Sarah saw this and fearfully raised her magical machete up to block, which did nothing to stop her and the kind mage from being knocked flying down the hall. The blond saw this and grit his teeth as he attempted to raise his hand enough to shoot at the stone being. He didn't have enough time as the guardian followed up with its other arm and, with another swing, sent Adam flying down the hall as well.

Josh skid to a stop and he looked to his sides as his friends went tumbling past him, stopping just behind him. Sarah's blade had been knocked out of her hands and the hilt made a clinking noise as it skipped to a stop in front of the younger boy. He looked down and picked it up, and when he looked up he saw the purple golem had crossed the large distance in a short amount of time and was already bearing down on him, arms high above its head. He panicked as he remembered what Alphys said about putting soul energy into it and focused differently than he was supposed to when flooding the device with magic. The device created a blade out of teal soul energy, but with an addition.

A layer of blue magic.

He raised the weapon upwards to guard against the two arms descending on him. As soon as they made contact, a small shockwave and an accompanying small *Boom!* shot from the point of collision. Sparks flew, and the golem's arms were sent back over its head, causing it to falter backwards. Josh's eyes widened in surprise before he spun and swung horizontally at the guardian's waist, and the collision created another shockwave and sent the golem flying backwards. It maintained balance by planting its feet onto the floor and leaning forward as it skid down half the hall, creating two trails of sparks.

"Whoa!" Frisk exclaimed.

"Tha-That's a blue attack!" Alphys realized.

"But why is it so strong?" The child asked.

"Well, blue and orange attacks _are_ much stronger when used in melee. They lose their energy if used as a ranged attack. Though I'm sure all this magic in the air has something to do with it, too." The scientist explained. "But that's incredible! I was wondering why humans could use orange but not blue attacks!"

The golem's cracks flashed teal for a moment before returning to white as it stood up straight.

"Hey, guys!" The four mages at the front looked behind them at the sound of the monster's voice, and they noticed they were much closer than previously.

"Whoa! You're a lot closer!" AJ noticed.

"Yeah! The hall has been fluctuating in length ever since that thing appeared! It doesn't seem to be intentional, though! I'm noticing distortions when it happens!" Alphys shouted back.

Adam glanced back at the golem and suddenly went on alert. "Watch out." He spoke up.

They turned and saw the yellow golem raising both its arms at them. The green soul quickly created multiple barriers in a row in front of them to block the barrage of lasers.

" _Man_ I'm glad I kept practicing with those…" AJ commented, sounding just a bit tired.

The golem shattered one barrier and cracked another before seeming to realize or notice something. It stopped shooting and glanced over its shoulder. It saw Alex slowly standing up, panting and bleeding from her nose, her hair disheveled. Its color changed to green.

"There!" The green soul called out as he dropped his barriers, allowing Adam to shoot the distracted golem.

The guardian's hand glowed green as a large barrier appeared in front of the mages, blocking their attack. They all stopped in surprise for a moment before the just soul began opening fire on the barrier again. AJ ran up to it and began hitting it with his sword as well.

"Damn! It's strong!" He noticed, gritting his teeth. "Josh!"

The patient mage needed only a moment to realize what he needed to do. He ran up and hit it three times with his blue attack sword before it shattered. The guardian heard this and filled the space between it and them with more strong barriers.

The kind mage realized with a worried look what they needed to do. "Frisk!" He called out, looking behind him. "I think we need your help!"

Frisk looked worried for a moment before becoming serious and nodding. "Okay!" She began running out to meet them.

The golem kept its left arm up towards them while shifting its right shoulder to face the brave mage. It stood still for a moment as the right half of its body slowly shifted from green to yellow before it raised that arm towards her. She looked up and saw what it was doing, and her eyes widened for a moment. Then she grit her teeth in frustration, shook her head, and did the only thing she thought she should do.

Run straight at it.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She focused on her soul energy and put everything into her body, moving as fast as she could to reach it as quick as possible. The golem fired laser after laser, and call if bravery or stupidity, she didn't even try to dodge.

You know what she'd call it though.

An orange glow appeared at the bottom of her feet, and just as the golem began firing at her, an angled barrier of orange magic appeared in front of her. The shield glowed with each hit, but showed no signs of fading or weakening. She crossed the entire distance without taking a single hit, and when she was in range, she leapt at it with a war cry. The golem's head tilted up in what almost looked like surprise before it shifted its entire body to orange to counter her.

"HYAA!" Alex swung a punch as hard and fast as she could, and the golem met the punch with its own. An orange shockwave shot out from the colliding fists, but their powers proved equal and neither one budged. The brave mage landed and looked between the golem's legs to see that the others were running down the hall towards them. She looked back up and saw the golem swing a quick punch down at her. She jumped up at the last moment to avoid it, reaching the peak of her jump at the same height as the golem's face. It quickly swung with its other fist while she was still in the air, but she used her speed to reactivate the soul energy blade and stab it into the attacking arm as leverage to flip over it. She kicked off its arm and slashed it across its stone face, causing it to recoil backwards and raise a hand to shield its face.

Sarah's running speed boost allowed her to reach them first, but the golem heard her coming and kicked backwards. She saw the incoming attack at the last second and jumped to the side, tapping the guardian's leg and leaving a purple light on it. The light activated and shot out a wire to connect with the wall, pulling its leg towards the wall and messing with its balance. It looked down at the leg for a moment before its energy changed to purple. A trio of yellow bolts hit its torso, and it raised an arm to block the next few bolts while its energy shifted to green. It held that arm out towards the three boys that were quickly approaching and created a large barrier in front of them.

The guardian was then knocked forward slightly as a certain redhead landed on its back with an orange blade sticking into the stone. She grinned at it before jumping off its back as it tried to turn and counter, which it found difficult while one of its legs was stuck against the wall. The orange soul started barraging it with orange fists, and it used its other arm to create a barrier between them. While she went to work trying to break it, the golem turned back to the others and noticed that they were rapidly approaching with no barrier in the way. It created another in front of them before getting distracted by the girl with the ponytail quietly trying to trap its other leg. With one quick swing of that leg it sent her tumbling through the air.

She found her dizzying journey down the hall interrupted when teal coils of soul energy caught her and held her in the air. She looked to the side and saw Josh running next to her, holding her in the air with his magic.

"Come on, Sarah! You can do this!" The patient mage exclaimed confidently.

She perked up at this, gaining a bit of confidence for this fight. "Well, if you say-" She was cut off when he threw his arm forward and controlled the ropes to release her and throw her at the golem. "SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The giant saw her coming and went to create a barrier in her flight path, but a well-placed laser to the arm stopped it just in time. The flying girl focused on the pain of that last kick and purple magic gathered around her cocked back fist. She went flying by the golem and socked it across the face, breaking off a chunk of its head and causing it to stagger backwards so strongly that the trap on its leg broke.

The golem clutched its broken face, and a piece of the nearby wall broke off and began connecting with the magic on its head to repair the damage. It heard the barrier behind it shatter, and it looked over its shoulder to create another barrier and stop the two girls from progressing. It heard more yellow lasers fired from the front, and it turned and created another barrier to stop them and allow itself time to repair. It watched as a child with a red heart floating in front of her chest come out from behind the three boys and jumped straight at the barrier. Red magic appeared in front of her as she neared the green wall, and the field of red shattered the barrier as she went through it, causing it to collapse and allow the others to keep moving without pause.

To make things worse for it, the hall got shorter.

"Break that thing into pieces!" AJ shouted as a war cry.

The golem's repair was rushed and finished just as it raised its right arm towards the larger group and shifted to yellow. Josh shot out vines from his free hand that wrapped around the arm to try and stop it. A large laser shot from that hand and cut through two of the vines, and the patient soul quickly made the vines longer and began wrapping them around its shoulder and its neck before it could break the rest of them.

Alex went to attack as soon as she heard the war cry, but Sarah pulled her arm back. "No, wait!"

"Let go of me!" The shorter girl shouted angrily. She paused in annoyance and confusion as the purple mage put a finger to her lips.

"I have a better idea." She said quietly before pointing at the lower portion of the golem. "I bet if we hit it hard enough together, we can take out one of its legs for them."

"Fine. Right or left?" Alex asked.

"Right. Ready? Three, two, one, go!" Sarah shouted as they both launched off down the hall.

The guardian's energy turned teal before taking a step back and pulling hard with its right arm. Josh was yanked into the air towards it. Sarah saw their target move and made a split second decision.

"Left! Hit left!" She shouted.

As Josh rapidly flew towards the guardian, he saw an orange and a purple blur come in from behind and slam through its left leg, breaking its lower half into pieces and causing the giant to fall forward. The two older girls skid to a stop next to the other mages.

"Whoa! Nice one!" AJ exclaimed before noticing the teal soul's flight losing momentum as the hall grew in length. He was going to land right in front of the golem at that rate. The kind mage created a platform in the boy's path. "Push off it!" He shouted down the hall.

Josh saw the green platform below him and found his feet landing perfectly at the edge of it. The off-balance guardian turned yellow and raised its right arm at him. It fired just as he pushed off the barrier with magical strength and jumped over the shot. He flipped over the golem and created magical ropes that wrapped around its left arm. Once he landed he pulled hard with his magic and tried to pull the giant to the ground. As it was pulled back the golem surprised them all by firing another laser at them. The shot flew straight at Frisk and she panicked and raised her hands up in front of her as they glowed red. A shield of red soul energy appeared around her and blocked the shot, and she stared forward in surprise as she'd never done that before.

"Whoa, are you okay!?" Sarah asked, concerned.

"U-Uh huh." The red soul nodded.

His heart had stopped for a moment when he saw that nearly hit her, but the sight of her soul magic gave him an idea. "Hey, Frisk. Your magic seems to stop and break a lot of other magic. It's almost like its anti-magic! Do you think you could turn that thing off if you got close enough?" He wondered.

"I can try." She answered with a shrug as Alex and Adam started attacking the guardian with ranged magic while Josh continued pulling on it.

"Be careful, alright?" AJ requested.

"I will." Frisk answered with a smile.

"Just pull its arm off already!" The redhead shouted as she continued attacking, though half her attacks passed through it as it struggled against its binds.

"It's not that easy, you know!" Josh responded. The golem got tired of being pulled on and pointed the tied up arm straight at him. His eyes widened and he quickly flung his arm to the side, controlling the ropes and making them shove its arm against the wall. It pointed its other hand at the boy, and he remembered the last time he was shot at and focused on the flow of his soul energy. The guardian fired right as the mage created a box of teal magic around him. With him focusing on the barrier, the golem's other arm was free, so it turned and use its other arm to start firing on the annoyances using ranged magic against it.

Adam saw the giant aim at him and he jumped behind Frisk, who used her magic protect them. The golem fired at Alex, then, but she began to zig-zag towards it and was hard to hit. The brave soul quickly got in range and jumped at the golem who gave up ranged attacks to try and swipe her away. Sarah quickly ran below the golem and jumped up to punch its arm up and out of the way.

"You got this!" She shouted.

"'Course I do!" The younger girl said as she punched the guardian in the face twice before jumping back. She landed next to the yellow soul, and AJ noticed that both of them were panting and starting to look tired, especially the redhead who seemed to never know when to stop using her magic attacks.

"Uh, guys!?" All mages looked past the golem and saw it had kept one arm firing at Josh this whole time. His barrier was stronger than a kindness barrier, but the large cracks showed it wasn't invincible. He stood tall as the lasers kept stopping a short few feet from him, as his magic required it. "Hit it a little harder, please!" Expecting a shot to break the barrier, and another to follow, he wasn't ready for the shot that broke the barrier to keep going and hit him straight in the chest. "AGH!" He cried out as he was knocked onto his back.

The green soul's eyes widened in fear before he raised up both his hands and focused his magic into them to create multiple barriers to keep the younger boy from being hit by more attacks. "Shhhhhh- Frisk, we need to do this _now_! Sarah, trap it, right now!" He said to the girls on his right and left respectively.

"Right!" The purple mage nodded before running towards the golem. She created magical goo around both hands before throwing them at its foot and stump leg. The guardian turned its attention to her and tried to smash her with its right arm, but she used her speed to dodge and quickly left two traps on its arm that created wires that stuck to the floor. Its energy turned to teal and it raised its other arm and created a trio of ropes that tried to grab her. "AAH!" She screamed and used her speed to immediately turn and run away. A loud thud gave her pause and she turned and saw the tentacle-like vines had crashed into a large green wall.

"Keep going!" AJ shouted.

"No! It's okay, AJ! I can do this!" Frisk spoke up next to him as the two Dreemurr's slowly approached.

"No! You're only going when it's totally safe!" He responded strongly.


	35. The Place Of Power

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.35

* * *

The giant of stone changed to purple and raised its right arm up. Adam saw this and fought through his weakness to fire at it. The shots were not enough and the golem planted its hand into the ground, causing magical ropes to sprout up around the mages in front of it and pull them to the ground. It used this chance to begin repairing its leg.

"Damn it…" The green soul said through grit teeth.

"Oh come on!" The brave mage complained as she struggled.

A red glow emanated from Frisk and her binds disintegrated, allowing her to stand. "I'm going!" She decided.

"No!" AJ shouted back, holding a hand out towards her as she ran ahead. "Frisk!"

The golem stared at her as its left side slowly shifted to yellow as it held that hand up towards her. The child held her hands out in front of her and focused on her soul energy as it began firing at her.

"Come on! We don't have to fight!" She shouted as she ran at it. "If I can make peace with Undyne, I can do it with you, too!"

The golem noticed its leg had been replaced and stood up fully before taking a fighting stance and shifting to orange. It shot a punch down at the girl as soon as she was in range, but she skillfully juked to the side. It launched a sudden punch with its other hand, but she quickly jumped backwards, sliding a bit when she landed. The guardian did not let up and made a few large steps while preparing a large sweeping swing with its right arm. Frisk jumped and flipped through the air while the golem turned around and skid to a stop.

It ran up to the young mage again and launched a punch down at her. She jumped back just enough to dodge it, a smile on her face. It immediately followed up with a left hook aimed at the head, which she ducked under, before trying to smash her with its right arm. She sidestepped that and pressed against the wall before the giant tried to kick her with its large right leg. She jumped up to avoid that before pushing off the wall to dodge a high speed jab from its left arm. It quickly brought that arm back in a wide swing and she ducked under it before jumping back from a right hook.

"Whoa! How is she dodging so well!?" Sarah asked, shocked by how well the child was dodging even as the golem used the speed boost of the orange trait.

AJ chuckled. "Yeah, ever since we fell in The Underground, she's been pretty good at dodging things."

"I'm surprised you even worry about her if she can do _that_." The purple soul commented.

The golem pulled back its left arm and threw another punch at the young mage, but its fist clashed with a green wall that had appeared between them, leaving massive cracks in it. It recognized that the other mages were joining the fight again, and it looked over its shoulder for a moment.

"Alright then…" Adam let out a slow sight. "One last push…" He raised both arms in front of him and focused on his magic as he began firing lasers from both his hands.

"Hah! Alright!" Alex said in response to this and grinned as she began barraging the guardian with her own ranged magic.

"We're going too, right?" Josh said, more encouraging the other two to get moving than actually asking.

"Right!" AJ answered with a nod. The green, teal, and purple mages began running towards their opponents.

The giant had its arms raised to guard against the attacks, but they were beginning to really damage it, so it changed its energy to green and prepared to create a barrier in front of the just and brave souls. Frisk saw this as her chance and let out a "Hup!" as she jumped high and aimed at its back. It of course heard this and swung backwards with its right arm. She saw the green platform appear below her and she pushed off it to dodge. The giant turned around fully and threw a punch with its left, and she pushed off another barrier appearing above her to avoid the attack.

The red soul landed on the ground and quickly jumped again, aiming for its chest. The golem tried to grab her as she got close, but a purple blur came crashing into its back and shoved it forward. It persevered and tried to raise its other arm to block the child from reaching it, but ropes of teal magic pulled that arm back.

"I show you mercy!" Frisk exclaimed as her glowing hand made contact with the giant. The cracks in its body that were filled with magic quickly lost their glow, and the guardian went limp and stood still, a lifeless humanoid form made of cracked stone.

There was just a moment of silence as everyone's minds processed what they were seeing.

"Wait, did that actually work!? YES!" AJ cheered.

"WOOWHOOO!" Sarah immediately cheered as well.

"Yahah!" Frisk cheered happily as she began running from the golem and back to the others.

"They did it…" Lilly said in awe.

"Incredible! Although, now I want to learn more about what the heck _that_ was!" Alphys exclaimed. The two began walking down the hall to meet up with their friends.

Josh let out a sigh and relaxed a bit, smiling.

"Well, that was fun." Alex commented with a smirk. "Kinda easy though."

"There were seven of us…" Adam pointed out as he collapsed to a sitting position. 'So this is what it feels like to use soul magic too much… I feel exhausted, but not physically…'

"Actually only six. Four-eyes is still back there with… the other four-eyes." The brave mage responded, looking back down the hall.

The red soul attempted a jumping tackle on her 'brother', though he saw her coming and was able to simply catch her. "We did it!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah! Still can't believe that actually worked!" He commented with a smile.

"Well what else could we have really done? That thing was pretty tough by the looks of it…" Frisk responded.

"Well Josh _could_ have just ripped its arms and legs off with his weird magic." Alex pointed out.

"Yeah, alright, you keep pretending that it would be that easy." Josh responded as he walked up next to them.

"It would have been for me!" Alex countered before getting an idea and turning to point at Frisk. "Hey! Turn that thing back on, I wanna kick its- Aaa!" She hissed in pain and fell forward slightly. She immediately forced a pained grin. "Wow, that… actually stung a bit." She managed to say, still caught off guard by that sudden burst of pain.

"Whoa, hey, let me heal you." AJ requested with a concerned look as he set Frisk down. He readied his healing magic and stepped towards her.

"I don't need your help." The redhead responded with a strong glare, holding her hands close to her chest and stepping away.

"Quit being stubborn and stupid and let me heal you." He countered strongly as he stepped up and held out his hands in front of her. She stared at the glowing mist flowing from his hands with a hesitant look before eventually giving in and holding out her right hand. He covered it with both his hands to begin healing it. His healing magic gave him a feedback he hadn't had before and he saw the extent of her injuries. Her knuckles were cracked pretty badly, and he wasn't surprised considering she punched rock head on. "Where else are you hurting? Cause your nose is _still_ bleeding." He asked.

"Oh, yeah, that." She responded, clearly not worried. "Eh, it's been broken before, I'll live."

"Well you won't have to live with it, cause I'm gonna heal it." He then looked at those around him. "I'll fix us all up, since I'm pretty sure most of us got hit at least once." He then looked at Josh specifically. "Especially you. Cracks in the soul are a no-no."

"I think I'm pretty alright, actually!" Sarah commented with a smile. The smile quickly turned to a forced one. "A-Actually… my shoulder does still hurt a bit from that kick…"

"My chest is still hurting. I wouldn't mind you taking a look at that." Adam said.

Alex felt around her body with her free hand. She winced slightly. "A few ribs hurt, but that's it."

"Right. I'm gonna deal with the bleeding next though." AJ responded.

Five seconds later, the brave mage was getting impatient. "How bad are you at healing? Hurry up!" She demanded.

"There is a lot of cracked bone here!" The green soul responded. "Fixing bone takes time no matter how much healing magic I create, so be patient!"

Josh looked worried. "Oh boy…" He mumbled.

Alex grit her teeth and pulled her hand away. "No! If you're gonna take so long, then I don't need your stupid healing!"

He simply stared at her, frowning. "Guess you didn't hear me say not to be an idiot." He said before sighing. "Sorry, but there's no way I'm letting you just walk around with cracked and maybe even broken bones." He saw the angry look on her face, she wasn't going to allow it, but he wouldn't allow her to not allow it. "At least let me see what's up with your ribs, you are not walking around with those messed up."

She glared at him for a few seconds before letting out an annoyed "Tch." and seeming to relax a bit. "Fine."

He nodded slightly. "Thank you."

He brought his hands close to the redhead only for her to suddenly grab his wrists as he got close. "Don't, touch me."

He did his best to remain calm. "I'm not going to, but my hands have to physically be close in order for the healing magic to reach you."

She let go of his hands before looking away and pretending he wasn't there as he began letting his healing magic flow to her ribs. He was quiet at first before his eyes suddenly widened in shock. He stood up straight and she was surprised to find him looking furious with her.

"Why the hell are your ribs CRACKED!? Hell, one is nearly broken! Why were you fighting!? You could have made this worse!" AJ shouted angrily.

"What the hell are you yelling at me for!? Why do you care!?" Alex shouted back.

"This shouldn't have happened! Did you have your soul energy flowing through you at _all_!?" The green soul questioned.

"Course I did!" She answered.

"Yeah, they would have been _broken_ if you didn't, but you obviously didn't put much effort into it!" He said.

"Well it's hard to focus on that and everything else at the same time!" The brave mage shouted.

"You _have_ to focus on it or you could DIE taking hits like you did!" AJ shouted.

"Guys!" Frisk shouted with a worried expression.

Without any warning at all, magical energy suddenly filled the golem. It tilted its head up, and the stone in its face broke apart to form a jagged mouth that it used to let out a deafening roar at the mages.

* _ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRR_!*

Everyone shielded their eyes as the power flowing from the golem created a powerful gust of air that threatened to throw them down the hall. Alphys panicked and ran back down the hall just as she was reaching the mages, and Lilly's eyes widened in shock and fear.

The energy of the golem turned red for a moment before turning back to white.

"So I guess we _do_ need to destroy it entirely?" Sarah guessed worriedly.

"Or we need to think of something else." AJ responded.

"Good luck with that." Adam commented as he began preparing to use more magic attacks, despite his exhaustion from using them consistently since this began.

"Why won't this stupid thing stay down!?" Alex exclaimed in annoyance before stepping forward only to nearly collapse from the pain assaulting her from multiple places in her body.

"No! You are in no condition to fight!" The kind soul said strongly.

"Screw you! You can't tell me when I can't fight!" The short teen shouted angrily even as she clutched her side with one hand while pointing at him with the other.

"The crack in my soul isn't an immediate problem, right?" Josh asked as the golem's energy shifted to red.

"No, just don't get hit by more magic or really hard hits and you'll be fine." AJ answered.

"This isn't good though…" Sarah said worriedly. "I'm still okay, but those two really can't help us much anymore…" She said, pointing at Alex, kneeling on the ground, and Adam, leaning against the wall as he slowly fired yellow bolts at the stone giant.

"It's even worse than that." The blond commented with a sigh.

They turned and saw the guardian was slowly approaching them as the yellow magic shot at it was stopped by a field of red magic that appeared whenever the magic nearly made contact with its body.

"It has my magic now!?" The determined child exclaimed worriedly.

"Get back, now!" AJ ordered her and she hesitantly did as told and got behind them all.

"How do we even hurt it then?" Josh asked.

"It will probably change colors to try and be more offensive, just hit it then." Adam answered.

"What if it doesn't change though?" The oldest girl asked.

The golem began moving faster once it was in range, taking a swing with its right at Adam, who stepped back to avoid the fist that smashed into the wall. It looked at the purple soul and its energy shifted to orange.

"Now!" AJ shouted.

"Hit it!" Adam ordered at the same time as he began firing at it.

The guardian tried to bring its left arm down on the girl, but she jumped back just in time. It saw Josh was the closest target now in front of it, so it quickly threw a right hook at him. Rather than dodge, he raised his blade of soul energy and used the power of the blue attack to deflect it. The golem was knocked back only for a moment before it swung again as its energy turned red. Josh was unsure if he should advance but decided to anyway and swung again. He saw his blade be dissolved as it came into contact with the veil of red before the punch connected and sent him flying over their heads.

"I'm guessing my traps wouldn't work?" Sarah spoke up.

"No. Nothing but brute force will work when it's like that." AJ answered.

The giant swung wide at the two of them and they had to jump back.

"You're the only one who can effectively hit it right now." Adam pointed out.

The golem looked down at the orange mage in front of it and cocked its fist back.

The kind soul saw her try to move away, but collapse again from the pain. "Sh-"

Alex looked up at the guardian, but then her eyes widened as AJ jumped in front of her. "HYAAA!" He swung as hard as he could and met the giant's fist with his own. The punch did nothing and he was sent flying down the hall. For a moment, Alex sat there, too stunned to move.

Sarah rushed to her side and picked her up. "Come on!" She said before running away and getting her to safety. She then grabbed Josh and took them right back to Adam's side to try and fight this thing.

"A-Are you okay?" Lilly asked the older boy.

AJ groaned and slowly stood up far down the hall, dazed and mildly in pain. "Yeah…" But now that he was far away, he had the chance to think. He had the chance to try and figure out how to defeat this golem. But even in an important situation like this, his mind wondered. He went from thinking of any other ways they could beat it, to the whole concept of this enemy itself.

He suddenly realized it didn't make sense. Why was this guardian here? If it took seven to get in, then it shouldn't need a guardian. It could be an extra measure of security, but then why was it taking in their soul traits and using them? If it can take the traits of the seven, why is it fighting them? Why is this defense system attacking them when they're supposed to be here? Could it be a test? Are they supposed to fight it? Well, they are, no point thinking about if they're supposed to. But _how_ do they win, then?

But even that didn't get him back on track.

Nothing made total sense. Its security and it just attacks everything? It doesn't care that they're the seven at all? Is it a gatekeeper rather than pure security? How do they prove themselves? WHY does it use the traits after they hit it with magic? He was still stuck on that. It absorbs and uses the powers of the seven traits, SURELY it can recognize that they're the ones that are supposed to be here, and stop fighting, right? And then it clicked, one weird idea that made sense a bit more than any other weird ideas.

Maybe they need to prove that they have all seven traits by letting it absorb them all. It goes out of its way to show each trait it has gained when it gets it, that feels like an indicator to him. Maybe it will stop once it has all seven? If he's wrong, then he just gives the enemy a full seven different ways to fight them. But it really can't get worse now that it has Determination, and besides, Integrity is the only trait they haven't given it, and broken pieces have only been replaced. It came out of the walls fresh and new, who was to say it won't be entirely replaced even if they do break it all at once? It really was the only idea he felt would work.

It is a gatekeeper and they must give it the seven different colored passes to be allowed through.

"Lilly, I have an idea for how to beat this thing, but you are not going to like it." He spoke up.

"What? W-Why?" She asked hesitantly.

He held out the metal hilt that could shape soul energy into specific forms. "I think if this thing has all seven soul traits, it will stop, so you need to stab it with a blade made of your soul energy."

"W-What!? I-I can't do that!" The glasses wearing girl exclaimed in shock.

"You have to! No one else can do this for you!" AJ responded.

She fearfully stared at the device for a few seconds before hesitantly taking it from his hand. She looked at it for a few more moments before pressing the button on it and closing her eyes to focus on the flow of her soul energy. Once enough of it flowed into the metal, a blade of vibrant blue energy took shape from it.

The older teen stood up fully and smiled at her. "I know this is scary, but we'll be fighting with you, so just look for an opening and stab it anywhere you can, alright?"

"But I don't know how I can do that. I've never fought before!" Lilly responded.

"Well, I don't think Sarah had fought much before meeting us, and look at her now!" The kind soul said, pointing down the hall.

The purple soul dashed to her right just as a stone fist crashed into the ground. Her eyes widened before she jumped back from a wide swing of the giant's other arm. She gained a determined look before jumping at her opponent's face and swinging as hard as she could, hitting enough to physically turn its head before quickly jumping. "Ah!" She hissed in pain as she clutched that hand for a moment before turning her head slightly towards Adam. "I don't know how we're going to beat it if all I can do is punch it! This hurts, and I don't want to break my hand!" She pointed out worriedly.

"We don't have many other options!" Adam responded, standing back and waiting for the golem to change away from red.

"You see? She's fighting cause she has to, and if my theory is right, you do too." AJ spoke. "Now come on, let's do this before someone gets really hurt." He said before running ahead as soon as he was sure the young mage was following behind.

"Where the hell's AJ, anyway?" Josh asked aloud, glancing back down the hall. The golem saw he was distracted and quickly raised its left arm over its head as it switched to orange to try and capitalize on this. The teal soul saw the incoming attack in his peripheral vision and quickly jumped to the side as the giant arm crashed into the ground. He then immediately brought out his soul energy sword and swung hard at the appendage. The blue attack knocked the guardian back, and the just mage was quick to begin barraging it with ranged attacks anywhere he could land them. The persevering soul shot magical goo at its feet while the patient mage was beginning to coil around the golem with his magic.

The giant's energy color changed back to red as it recovered from the blue attack. The ranged attacks were stopped by a red shield around the golem, the goo fizzled away, and the teal ropes dissolved at the touch of the red magic.

Adam growled in frustration, Sarah let out a fearful noise, and Josh sighed quietly. Alex tried to get up and help them, but her body begged her to stop until her bones weren't in danger of breaking, and even she had to admit that she wasn't any use to them with how much she was hurting. She knew she needed to be healed to get back into the fight, and that was when she saw the one who could heal her, along with the blue hearted mage, running past her.

"Hey! Get me healed so I can fight!" She demanded. The two mages stopped and turned to her.

"I'll heal you afterwards! If we just do this quick then we might win!" The boy responded before going to turn away.

"How!? You're better off with me than her!" Alex said, gesturing at Lilly.

AJ let out a sigh. "We don't have time for this, I'll heal you later, deal with it!" He said before running ahead. Lilly kept up with him a few more steps before slowly stopping as she watched the golem ignore all attempts to attack it with magic.

"I can't… I just _can't_ … I'm not brave like all of you…" She said to herself, her eyes shut tight from the fear that was making her hesitate.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the green soul was standing and staring up at the golem. The giant stared down at him, standing between him and the three other mages still fighting. The mages were communicating, arguing about what their plan to beat this thing was, when its energy turned purple and it slammed a hand against the ground. Purple wires wrapped around and pulled them all to their knees once again. The guardian raised its right arm up into the air and prepared to smash the mage in front of it. Sarah's eyes widened as she saw this and she broke out of her binds as fast as she could before running past the giant and tackling AJ hard enough to break his binds and knock them away from the arm that smashed against the stone floor. They heard the guardian take quick, large steps towards them, but when they looked up from the floor, all they saw was it step over them, running right past them, even past Frisk, who had jumped out of its way.

"Look out!" The kind soul shouted, raising a glowing green hand towards the two younger girls. Three barriers appeared to block the path of the golem, but its energy changed to orange and it used the slightly weaker speed boost to keep running and also smash through each barrier while barely slowing down. Sarah got up and tried to shoot her gooey magic at it, but it was too far away and she missed.

Alex fought through the pain and groaned as she weakly stood up. "Just… get behind me, kid…" She requested.

Lilly didn't hear her, she was too deep in her thoughts. She knew this was her chance. She held the energy blade in front of her, knowing that she only had to hit the golem once with it and this battle might just end. But as she saw the giant rapidly approaching, she lost her nerve. She dropped the magic shaping device and raised her arm in front of her, shooting out a blue sphere that created a layer of bouncy magic on the floor. She then crouched down low and wrapped her arms over her head, cowering.

The golem was nearly on them, and when it took the last step it needed to take to be in range of them, its foot landed on the blue magic on the floor, causing the leg to shoot right back up and its knee to slam into its face. The giant stumbled back as a few shards of stone broke off and flew outward from the blow. Once it regained its balance, it stood up straight.

The energy flowing through the cracks changed to blue before returning to white.

Then the golem stood there as the energy in its right arm turned yellow, followed be the energy in the left turning teal, then it's right leg's energy turned purple, and the left's turned orange. Then the lower half of its torso turned blue, and the upper half turned green. Then the energy flowing through its head turned red.

And then a strange, garbling noise that sounded remotely like something that might have been words, echoed from the golem as it stood there, calmly. The humans and monster all stood there, confused, as the giant simply stopped attacking them.

"The hell? Did it just try to talk or something?" Alex asked.

"Could it be speaking the language of the humans!?" Alphys wondered aloud before running down the hall as fast as her short legs could carry her. "HEY, GUYS!"

"Wait… did your ridiculous plan actually work?" Adam asked as he and Josh caught up with Sarah, AJ, Frisk, and the others.

"I think it actually did!" AJ answered, totally surprised.

"I don't trust that thing anymore, dude. Might just start attacking as soon as we all get close." Josh commented.

"Eh, I don't' blame ya." The green soul responded.

The golem made a gurgling noise again, and it seemed to be the same short series of sounds as the last.

"It _does_ sound like it's trying to talk!" Frisk realized.

"Any idea what it's saying?" The royal scientist asked as she stopped next to Alex and Lilly.

The golem looked at Alphys before raising its arm towards her. This put nearly everyone on edge, until the lizard's arm was jerked forward and the holo-tech on her arm was pulled off it. The arm pad floated over to the guardian as it was surrounded in a ball of magical energy. The giant stared at it for a few moments before looking at everyone and repeating its garbling noises.

"Soul Energy Nexus, complete." The device translated, causing everyone to step back in shock.

* * *

(Waterfall – Undertale OST)

Alphys especially had her eyes wide as saucers. "What-… that's impossible… how did it, interface with and modify my-" She stopped as the guardian began moving. It slowly turned around and began walking down the hall at a calm pace. Meanwhile, Alphys's arm pad floated back to her and she quickly wrapped the straps around her arm again. Everyone who was in the way stepped out of the way and they all were soon following the giant down the hall.

"Ah!" Alex let out another pained noise and stopped, clutching at her ribs.

AJ stopped and looked back at her before turning to the others. "Go on ahead, I need to heal her." He saw Frisk look back at him worriedly. "It's alright, sis. Go see what's new with everyone else."

"I-I'd feel safer with you than with the giant." She admitted.

"Even though he's peaceful now?" He asked.

"I'd rather not take the chance…" The child answered.

He smiled. He could tell she was just scared of losing him and wanted to be closer right now. He was feeling similar right about now. "Alright." He responded, hugging her when she walked up to him.

"Hurry up already!" Alex complained.

"Right, sorry!" The green soul apologized and quickly spun around towards her.

* * *

The others followed the giant down the hall and finally got a good look at the room at the end of it.

It was slightly wider than the room they had fallen into, and nearly twice as long. The magical energy pulses flowing through the etchings in the walls ended up here, traveling through the floor and the ceiling to reach the opposite end of the room. They did not travel along the walls as there were mirrors in the wall that would block the way. Seven of them, three to the left and four on the right, each one being the perfect size for a full body mirror. They took up the walls for only the first half of the room, the back half was empty save for one thing. Against the back wall was the thing producing the nearly blinding amount of light in this room.

A giant class cylinder, two feet taller and wider than the golem, and it was filled entirely with pure white energy that was radiating light.

"What in the world? Is that magical energy?" Alphys asked aloud. "I've never seen magic look so nearly pure… There must be a lot of it." She said, in awe.

"What are the mirrors for?" Sarah asked as she walked up to one. As soon as she was close enough, the edges of the glass began radiating purple energy. She noticed she could clearly see her soul floating over her chest when she looked at her reflection, yet when she looked down, her soul was nowhere to be seen as she was not in combat anymore. "Well that's… weird." She said, staring at her reflection in confusion. "How's it doing that?"

"What is the purpose of this place?" Adam asked the golem, who only stared at him for a moment before looking at the giant cylinder. "You spoke earlier, can't you say anything else?" He asked, somewhat annoyed.

It did not respond.

"I guess it would be too easy if it could tell us everything, right?" Josh asked rhetorically.

Lilly walked past a mirror on the left, and it began radiating blue magic in response. She stopped and stared at her reflection in wonder, entranced by the light reflecting off her own eyes. "Wow…"

"Can it really not speak any more?" Alphys asked as she looked away from the giant magical light and towards the golem. "Hmm. If it was made by ancient humans, perhaps they were not capable of giving it that kind of intelligence?" She wondered.

"They couldn't have at least given it a _few_ more lines?" The teal soul asked.

"Perhaps it's creation was rushed? Or maybe its programming?" The lizard wondered. "Maybe they weren't that good at making these things yet? Maybe they didn't care?" She sighed in annoyance. "There are plenty of possible reasons why, but there's nothing here that tells us anything. I mean look!" She gestured at the back wall. "This place is a dead end! There's nothing here but two rooms and the distorted hall that connects them."

"Well this place has to have _some_ use." Josh pointed out.

"Yes, of course…" Alphys agreed. "I just can't see much besides the mirrors, which there _are_ seven of, but we have to wait for the others to join to see what they all do." She continued to look around the area to try and see if there was anything else worth noting, but the room really did seem empty.

* * *

Frisk quietly leaned against AJ as he worked on healing Alex. He had one hand fixing up her injured hand while the other was healing the cracks in her ribs. No one had really said anything yet, as the brave mage was focused on dealing with the pain until it was gone, the kind one was focused on the task of healing, and the determined one was enjoying the peacefulness.

Little did they know, Alex had something on her mind that she was working up the courage to speak up about. "Hey, don't you hate me or something?" She asked suddenly.

He was both surprised and confused by the question, but he still answered after a moment. "Well, I don't like it, but you are one of those people I just can't really stand, so… yeah, I kinda do hate you most of the time. It's rare that you aren't doing something stupid or irritating."

"Yeah, exactly. So if you hate me, why the hell did you jump in front of that punch earlier?" She asked. "That's kinda stupid."

"Well-"

"And what was with you getting pissed off when you found out I didn't use my soul energy enough!?" She interrupted. "I got myself hurt, so why were you pissed about that? Why the hell do _you_ care if I die!?"

"Because it doesn't matter if I hate you!" AJ answered, giving her a look like she was stupid. "I can't just _stand_ there and let you get hurt after how bad you were hurt already! Just because I hate you, doesn't mean I want you dead. You're not _that_ bad a person. It isn't right to want someone dead unless they've done something truly horrible. I do _not_ want you dead. I want you gone literally every time I hear you open your mouth, but I'm not about to let you die, that's ridiculous."

She was actually a bit stunned by his response. She wasn't expecting someone she hated, someone that hated her, to actually seem to care enough to not want her dead.

"Do you _actually_ want me dead just for hating you?" He asked, shocked by the idea.

She thought about it for a few moments before sighing. "Well, I can't really want someone dead if they don't feel the same, that's just stupid." She answered.

"Good. I'm glad we agree on that at least." AJ responded with a nod.

"Hey, don't take this the wrong way, I still hate you." Alex said quickly.

"Oh don't worry, I don't plan on ever liking you either." He deadpanned.

They both went silent again and he simply focused on his healing for awhile longer. "Alright, everything should be good now." He said before standing up.

She stood up as well and flexed her hand before twisting around a bit. "Huh, what do ya know, your healing doesn't totally suck." She said before walking past him.

Frisk sighed as they watched the older girl join the others. "I don't get why you'd hate someone… I mean, what good comes out of hating someone?" She asked aloud.

"Well, not everyone can just like someone who's the complete opposite of you." AJ answered, taking a step forward towards the bright light ahead of them.

"Who not though?" The child asked, getting his attention. "Nothing good comes out of hating someone, just like nothing good comes out of thinking things that just upset you."

"Some people find it illogical to just leave someone alone when, when their morals are the complete opposite of yours." He responded, turning to face her. "To some that's like forgiving someone when they do something you just can't forgive. Morals are an important thing to a person, and when someone's views on certain topics are just the opposite of yours, you can't just leave that alone, you can't just _not_ hate someone when they want something that might just be pure evil to you. Alex isn't that, otherwise I wouldn't have cared about her getting so hurt, but some people just want things that are the complete opposite of what I believe in. There's no way I could just let that go, not when the disagreement is about something so important as morals."

"But what about me?" She asked, confused. "We're disagreeing right now, aren't we?"

"It's completely different with you." AJ answered, holding his hand out for her. She smiled happily and took his hand. "We aren't disagreeing on something as polarizing as…" He took a moment to think of something easier for her to understand. "…well I can't think of anything specific right now, but that doesn't matter. We're just arguing about how nice to be to people we don't like, and I know you'll always strive for total peace and happiness and forgiving no matter what."

She spoke up in the pause between sentences. "Because everyone will be happier that way!" She said with a smile.

"And I want peace too, I just don't believe that all should be forgiven, or that all people deserve the peace you want to give them." He continued. "We still agree on a lot of things, our morals are still on the same side of most, if not all, things. You just strive for more pacifism than I do. You think I'm being silly, and I think you're being bit too idealistic, that's just how it is. But you're a good, loving person, and that's what matters most to me. The people I hate are the people that are the opposite of you." He squeezed her hand before using his free hand to ruffle up her hair. "I still love you. Things like this will never change that."

She giggled happily before hugging him. "I love you too."

* * *

Alphys' gaze eventually settled on the right corner of the room next to the glass cylinder. "Wait a minute…" She squinted at the corner and began walking towards it. "I think something's here… hard to see with all this light though…" Once she was standing near the corner, she stared at the right wall, and in her shadow she was able to see what was clearly on the wall. "There's more writing here! Maybe this will finally tell us something!" She hoped as she turned on her holo-pad. "Huh?" Before she could reach her notes, however, she noticed a new addition to the list of apps and folders on the menu. There was a glowing new addition, and strangely enough, the name of this app was in the language of the ancient humans. "What is this?"

Upon activating the app, the lens of her holo-tech began producing a thin horizontal veil of magical light that traveled up and down the entire wall, scanning the runes that covered it. Once it was done, a new folder was created next to the app, once again titled in the ancient language, though it seemed to be spelled exactly the same except for the last half of the word. She opened the folder, and upon seeing its contents realized there was only one possibility for the names. The app was titled 'Translator', and the folder was titled 'Translations'. She walked away from the bright light and back towards the center of the room. "Guys! Come look at this!" She requested. Frisk and AJ had just entered the room when she called them, so all seven mages joined the monster scientist in the center of the room as the golem strangely walked up to the glass cylinder and stood in front of it.

"Welcome." The translated text started. "If you are here, then among you are seven mages wielding the seven traits of humanity. Sorry about the stone giant, but Bravery wanted to be sure that no random seven could begin this, only seven capable of battle would prove their worth. Believe me, I thought it was unnecessary, but he wouldn't listen. As to why the golem is not speaking directly to you, there simply wasn't enough time to give it that ability. We were barely able to give him the most necessary functions in time. Patience says that she was able to give the golem some way of assisting in getting this knowledge to you, but her explanation was too complicated for me to understand. Also, apologies for the distortions in the hall leading up to this room. The giant draws on so much magical energy from the hall that the area around it seems to become distorted while he is in combat. There was no time to find a way around this.

None of that matters though, what matters is that you get your power back, _our_ power back. This place will allow you to begin the process. Once it is activated, the magic that hides the other three sites will disappear, allowing you to activate the rest and retrieve humanity's true power. The golem and the seven mages are an important part of the first step. At each site, you will find a cylinder of glass much like this one, constantly drawing on magic from the outside world through the site on the surface. If it is filled with magical energy, what you must do here is stand before the seven lenses that reflect back at you. The presence of the mages at all seven acts as a key, allowing the cylinder to open. At this moment, the golem will step in, mixing the energies of the seven traits into the condensed magical energy. At this point, the site is charged, and you must now find the other three and repeat the process. There will be no golem at the other sites, but we have left other ways to condense the trait energies into one point to be mixed in with the magic. It must be done all at once, you cannot place them one at a time.

Activating all four sites by charging them with the seven traits will allow our true power to show once again. I am Perseverance, and I wish you all luck."

"Well… that isn't what I expected." AJ commented once he was finished reading.

"Y-Yeah." Alphys agreed. "I was still holding out some hope that this would be a trove of knowledge, but it seems that it's just part of something they made to make themselves stronger. Though I'll admit to still being curious about it all. If we're lucky, these other sites might still tell us more about the ancient humans."

"So, can we do as they instructed with the mirrors, now?" Adam asked.

"Is there any point to, though?" Lilly asked hesitantly.

"I don't really want to do it either, but it basically says we won't find the sites until we at least power up this one." The royal scientist pointed out.

"Did you guys even read?" Alex spoke up. "It said we'd get some awesome power! We _have_ to turn them on!"

Josh let out an unsure hum. "I don't know... seems suspicious to me."

"HOW!?" The brave mage asked.

"Well, aren't these the same humans that trapped all the monsters? I don't think I'd trust those guys, or whatever 'power' they wanna give us." The teal soul explained.

"He's got a point." AJ realized. "I don't think I'd trust them either."

"We don't have to trust them, but I would still like to at least activate this first site." Alphys said.

The kind soul nodded. "Alright, there's no harm in just one."

"Do we… know that, though?" Sarah spoke up, slightly concerned.

"Whatever power they want to give us will only work with all four." The blond pointed out. "I doubt one will do anything on its own." With that said, he walked over to the nearest mirror on the left and stood before it. Yellow magic began flowing from the edges of the glass.

"You know what? Yeah! You're probably right!" The purple soul said with a smile as she walked up to the next mirror on the left.

Lilly silently walked up to the last one on the left.

"Alright! Let's do this!" Alex shouted to pump herself up as she ran to the first mirror on the right.

"Well, here's hoping." Josh said to himself as he stepped up to the next mirror, ignoring the glare from the orange soul next to him.

AJ stepped up the next mirror as green energy began flowing from it. "Whoa, how come I can see my soul in the mirror?"

"Weird, right?" Josh commented.

Frisk stepped up to the last mirror on the right, the one closest to the cylinder. "Whoa…"

As the seven mirrors began radiating the colors related to each mage's trait, the floor began to rumble. Everyone turned to the golem as they heard the glass open up to the cylinder full of magic. As soon as it did, the golem jumped through the opening and the glass shut behind it immediately. The stone giant was vaporized almost instantly, and the colorful energies inside it began swirling around amidst the pure magical energy. The entire room became covered with shimmering colored lights as all the white energies changed to the traits of the mages. The hum from the magic became much louder, and it began to really sound like a large magical generator.

"Geez, like being in a rave." The patient soul commented with a chuckle as he looked around at the rapidly moving rainbow of colors fluttering around them.

"So… anything?" AJ asked aloud.

"It doesn't look like it…" Alphys asked, scanning the room. "But apparently there are three other sites out there somewhere now."

"You aren't gonna make us go looking for them, right?" AJ asked worriedly.

"Well, if I need seven mages to find them, I need you. If not, I can just look for them with sans or something." The lizard answered.

The green soul sighed in relief. "Alright, that's fair."

"Is that really all there is to this place, though?" Sarah asked them all.

"Supposedly." Josh answered.

"It's step one to great power, that's what matters." Alex commented.

"The translation made it seem like it was just one of four switches." Adam commented as he looked around before turning to Alphys. "Sadly, it really does seem to be nothing else."

The monster nodded in agreement. "Yes, it seems so. In that case, I guess we should find a way to leave. Oh! But I want to get a scan of this room, first! Just in case we missed something!" She said as she turned to start running back down the hall.

"You want to push that thing all the way down the-…" AJ cut himself short when he turned around and saw the hall they'd gone through to get here. "Oh. It's shorter now, okay." He realized.

Lilly shyly walked over and stood next to Frisk. "How do you think we get out of here?" She asked.

"I don't know." The child answered honestly. "Maybe we can just go back up the way we came?"

"I can't imagine another way out." The green soul commented before joining the others as they headed back towards the room they fell into.

They all waited for Alphys to bring her machine to the main room and scan it. Adam leaned against the wall the whole time while the others stood around the room in general. Once Alphys was on her way back, all but the blond stood in the middle of the room. Once the monster was with them, the just soul stepped into the middle as well. As everyone began floating again, the oldest mage spoke up.

"Hmm... I was right." Then everyone was suddenly thrusted upwards at high speeds.

"HOW WERE YOU RIGHT!?" Sarah shouted over the winds as they flew up towards the surface.

"WE GO UP OR DOWN ONCE ALL SEVEN MAGES ARE STANDING IN THE MIDDLE!" Adam answered.

"REALLY!? WOW! WE NEARLY LEFT ALPHYS DOWN THERE, THEN!" Sarah realized.

The darkness above them lifted as the hatch they fell through opened up. Their ascent slowed gradually until they were back on the surface, with a stunned skeleton staring up at them with his mouth agape. The hatch closed and they were all unceremoniously dropped again.

"Are you all okay!? What happened down there!?" Sans asked.

"We're fine." AJ answered. "We just fought a giant made of stone and then turned on one of four switches that are supposedly gonna give us some great power."

Sans sweatdropped at that. "Well… you're clearly alright with an answer like that. Wait, what was that about a stone giant?"

The older of the human Dreemurr's pulled out his phone and walked by the monsters. "Alphys can explain. I'm ready to go home now." He said with a sigh as he began calling Toriel.

"O-Oh. We're going now?" Frisk asked, surprised.

"I've had enough magic for today, personally." The kind mage commented. "I wanna just get home and relax as soon as possible."

The child nodded in understanding. "Okay." She then turned to the blue soul next to her with a cheerful smile. "Bye, Lilly!"

"Uh, b-bye." Lilly said and shyly waved back to the youngest mage as she joined AJ.

"Bye you two! See you later!" Sarah called out to them.

"See ya." Josh said.

"See ya, buds!" sans said.

"Bye!" Alphys waved.

Frisk waved with a bright smile and AJ glanced and quickly waved with a light smile as he was on the phone.

* * *

"Ugh... Feel like I was in that place a lot longer than I think we really were." The older one complained as they reached the bottom of the mountain path.

"Huh, I feel that way too." The child agreed. "Weird."

* * *

 **Man I took so long to write this that whenever I tried to start writing it again I forgot how to write and it made the quality just fluctuate ALL over the place… Terribly sorry about that.**

 **I'll try not to take… how many weeks was that(?) to write the next chapter. Though I certainly know better than to** _ **promise**_ **that.**

 **Also I wish I could have found some bg music that fit the fight better but honestly out of everything I listen to nothing really fit so I just went with that helped inspire me to write more during this chapter.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed and I hope** _ **you**_ **have a great week!**

 **Be safe!**

 **(Oh, and thank you, all of you that followed/faved or left reviews during my long accidental break. No idea how you all found this considering the notifications started coming in at least a month after I stopped posting, but that hardly matters. I always appreciate the positive reinforcement, but it was especially encouraging during moments when I was struggling to write.)**


	36. Those We Care About

**After spending so long writing a chapter that was mostly a fight scene, you know what I had to do next.**

 **Need to write something much more peaceful and calm and not filled with major important dialogue and plot points that I need to really focus on.**

 **I NEED MY FLUFF AND HAPPINESS FIX, MAN.**

 **I'm somewhat sorry, but at the same time, you'll survive.**

 **Also sorry for taking so long. The will to write goes away as soon as I start writing cause I'm bad with commitment. I'm working on it. Though there are two weeks that can solely be blamed on a certain video game sequel.**

 **Also happy late second anniversary to Undertale! Also late anniversary of when I posted the first chapter of Life Above!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.36

* * *

(Home – Undertale OST)

Early in the afternoon of the next day, Frisk turned the key and opened the door to her favorite place in the world. "Hi, Mom!" She said cheerfully as she walked in. She looked to her left and saw Toriel in her reading chair.

"Hello, Frisk!" Goat Mom greeted back. "AJ is in his bed right now."

The red soul looked confused and curious. "Why is he up there?"

"He said he wanted to experiment with napping." Toriel answered with an amused smile.

"Oh! You didn't wake him up when I texted you?" Frisk asked.

"Oh I know better than to do that." Toriel said with a chuckle, then noticed the young human looked confused. "I cannot imagine anyone other than you getting away with waking him up."

"Oh come on, he wouldn't get mad at you for that." Frisk defended her 'brother'.

"You are probably right, but he would still be happier seeing you first." She responded before looking off to the side. "That is, if he fell asleep."

"Hmm?"

"He did say that there was a chance he would not fall asleep as he was never good at that." Toriel explained.

"Oh yeah, he always complains that he can't get to sleep easily." The child commented. "Well, I'll go get him then."

"Alright. Enjoy yourselves today." The monster woman said with a smile.

Frisk giggled cheerfully. "We will!" She then headed up the stairs and quickly reached the door to their room. "AJ? Can I come in?" She asked quietly with a knock. She heard a faint hum of acknowledgment and slowly entered.

"Hey, Frisk…" The teen greeted tiredly.

"Hey!" The child greeted back.

With Frisk's bed, the headboard is against the wall and she wakes up with the door in view. AJ's bed, however, faces the exact opposite way and the headboard keeps you from seeing him when you walk in.

The younger one walked towards the side of his bed, where she'd be able to actually see him. As she did, she could hear him take a long, deep breath through his nose. He let out the long breath through his mouth as he heard her steps near him. He opened his eyes partially and turned his head towards her.

She was surprised to see him sleepily looking up at her while clutching a large white pillow that was nearly half as tall as he was. He even had his cheek pressed against the top of it.

"So, how are you doing?" He asked tiredly.

"How dare you…"

He was surprised to see that she looked annoyed with him.

"cuddle with something other than me!" She exclaimed as she grabbed the pillow and yanked it from his hands, throwing it behind her so hard it flew across the room and landed on her bed.

"Huh!?" He exclaimed before the child jumped up and landed on him. "Oof!"

"You must be punished for your crimes!" Frisk demanded as she hugged him around his neck tightly.

"Ack! Okay! Okay! I'm sorry! Just let go!" He begged as he tried to ply her arms away from the thing that connected his head to the rest of his body. Satisfied, Frisk relaxed and gave him a much gentler hug that wasn't around his poor neck.

Once he recovered from that blow and had the chance to stare at her as she rested her head on him, he couldn't help but chuckle at how ridiculous she was being. "Hehehe! Why in the world do you care so much about this!? What is with your obsession!?"

"Why shouldn't I care about cuddles!?" She asked with her usual smile. "More people need to realize how nice it feels to cuddle. People are so warm… If more people were willing to cuddle, I bet people wouldn't fight so much anymore."

He let out another chuckle. "Wow. That has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say, and I've heard you say some pretty crazy things." He then sat up so he could properly give her a strong hug. "No denying that first bit though…" He added with a content smile as he enjoyed the warmth she mentioned.

Frisk relaxed and didn't bother trying to move. "So, did you manage to nap at all?" She asked.

"I did, actually. I woke up just before you knocked." He answered. "Weird, huh? It's like I just always know if you're there." After a moment of peaceful silence, he glanced out the window and noticed something off about the color and direction of the sunlight. "Hey, wait, it's not that late. What are you doing here?" He asked, confused.

"Well I was only there for about an hour, and then sans and Papyrus said they wanted you to come hang out with us today. So he teleported me back to come get you!" The child explained, pulling back slightly to look up at him.

AJ let out a whine. "Really? The one time I try to nap…"

The red soul relaxed once again. "Yeah, and I'm pretty comfy right now. But… it's not every day sans and Pap have free time."

Considering how content he was at the moment, the fact that he knew he needed to get up annoyed him greatly. He let out a grumble. "Yeah, I know… Five more minutes?" He asked hopefully.

The kid let out a quiet chuckle. "We do that, we might never get back up." She said as she slowly brought herself to crawl off him and slide off his bed. "Come on, they're waiting for us."

"Sans can just teleport here if we're taking too long." The teen pointed out.

"Well he won't do that until I text him, which I'm gonna do now." Frisk responded as she brought up her phone. Once she hit send and saw that AJ still wasn't getting up, she grabbed him by the arm and started pulling. "Come on, AJ. It's time for you to feel some sunlight."

The kind soul rolled his eyes at that. "Sis, I don't have to go outside every, single, day." He complained as he gave in and let her pull him up out of bed.

"There's no reason not to. It feels nice, and it's good for you." She responded.

"You know, I figured after fighting a giant rock monster, I'd get to relax." He pointed out.

"Are you kidding? It's sans. We're going to do nothing _but_ relax." Frisk pointed out.

He laughed in agreement at that, before letting out a sigh as despite his complaining, he still intended to come along. "Alright, well give me a sec to wake up." He did a few standing stretches before heading outside with Frisk, waving bye to Toriel as they did so. Once outside they were met with a certain skeleton standing around in their front lawn.

"Hey guys." Sans greeted his friends.

"Heyo." The teen greeted.

"We're ready to go!" The young one said with her usual cheer.

"Guess what I learned today?" AJ asked the monster. "I'm apparently not allowed to cuddle with literally anything that isn't Frisk."

Sans gained an odd look at that before turning to the child with a raised non-existent eyebrow.

"What's that look for!?" Frisk asked defensively, crossing her arms and pouting. "What he did was a serious offense!" She then mumbled to herself. "He's only allowed to cuddle with _me_."

The skeleton just shook his head. "And I thought AJ was possessive..."

""HEY!"" The two humans complained before he teleported the three of them to the front door of the skeleton household.

"I'm joking, buds. I know you're just important to each other." Sans said with a chuckle before turning to open the door. "Even so, you have to admit your relationship is weird."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The child asked.

Sans decided to turn his back to the door and spend the moment talking to his friends. "You guys get along better than most monster and human _couples_ that I see." The monster answered.

"Don't people get along better than _most_ couples these days?" The teen responded.

"Even monster couples, though?" Sans pointed out.

AJ paused for a second. "Okay, point." He admitted.

Sans chuckled. "Heh. Yeah, Alphys actually brought this up last night. We went back and forth for a bit, and eventually she said"

"W-Well, when you think about it, it's really pretty simple. It's a coincidence is all. They just both happen to be the kind of people that, you know, never really care just a little. Some people always care very deeply and… intensely about their loved ones. If two of those people were to care about each other, they would inevitably end up like those two, right?"

"And then I said, 'Are you sure the kid isn't just really affectionate?' " The skeleton said with a chuckle.

"Ha!" The older human laughed at that. "Yeah… That's her, alright." He said as he raised his right hand to mess up the hair of the child next to him. Frisk laughed and smiled brightly. "Heck I'd say she's the reason we're like this."

"Oh really?" Sans asked with a grin. "You sure like to act like she's the cuddly one. I kinda wonder though… It seems like you like it more than you say." Just the opposite of the monster's grin, the boy's face gave away nothing. "I can't help but wonder if you're really a cuddler yourself."

"I can say for certain that I'm not." AJ said strongly.

Sans' grin did not fade in the slightest. "Can't help but notice you're blushing a bit."

"I don't blush." The teen defended.

"Heh, well that's a lie. I've seen you blush before." The skeleton responded.

"So what? Even if I am, that doesn't mean anything!" The boy said defensively.

"Course not, bud. Know what else doesn't prove anything? You getting defensive, and Frisk acting like we aren't having this conversation." Sans managed to project sarcasm without having any sarcastic tone.

Frisk continued to act interested in the buildings across the street.

"You don't have to worry about a thing, bud. If you two need a place to crash, we've got a couch you could use." The monster said with a smirk.

"Aaaah, shut up!" AJ said, embarrassed. "Can we go inside now!?"

"You want the couch _already_?" The skeleton asked.

"SANS!" The boy shouted.

"PFFTHAHAHAHAHAH!" Sans clutched at his sides as he busted up laughing.

At this, the door to the skele-brother house flew open, hitting sans and sending him cartwheeling through the air till he landed at the edge of their lawn.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! HOW CAN I POSSIBLY WAIT ANY LONGER WHEN I CAN HEAR LAUGHTER!?" Papyrus exclaimed.

"Hah! Karma!" AJ shouted at the down skeleton as soon as he hit the ground.

"AH! Are you okay!?" Frisk asked, worriedly.

"SANS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?" The tol skel asked, confused. "ARE YOU REALLY TAKING A NAP ON THE LAWN!? AND WHEN THE TWO HUMANS ARE VISITING!?" He said, annoyed.

"Ow…" Sans groaned as he lay splayed out on the grass. "Not having one HP is great…" He mumbled before slowly pulling himself up. "Sorry, bro." He apologized as he walked back over to them.

"YOU SHOULD BE SORRY! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD-"

"Hey, Papyrus!" The teen greeted, pulling the heat away from the older skele-brother. "How's it going?"

The skeleton turned and smiled at him. "HELLO, AJ! IT HAS BEEN GOING VERY WELL FOR ME, AS YOU CAN IMAGINE!" He said proudly. "ADMITTEDLY I HAVEN'T MADE TOO MANY MORE HUMAN FRIENDS RECENTLY, BUT I HAD ALREADY MADE MANY THESE PAST THREE MONTHS! IT WAS THREE, RIGHT? HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?" Papyrus said, in thought.

AJ looked up as he tried to remember. "I mean as I recall, the barrier broke early November, eventually we had Christmas, not long after that was two months as the new year started and Josh got his magic, another week and new mages started popping up and I had to teach them for a week, then hanging out with Josh and the others, and then a few days with the apparently magical tourist trap… so unless I'm dumb we're definitely _close_ to beginning the fourth month."

"February is right around the corner." Sans commented.

"HOW HAVE THINGS BEEN FOR YOU?" The younger skeleton asked the boy.

"Pretty well, I'd say." The teen said with a smile.

"NO NEW DEVELOPMENTS?" Papyrus asked.

"Heh, I mean there was plenty of crazy, recently, but nothing new with everyday life. Everything's been generally good." AJ answered with a chuckle.

"WONDERFUL! AND I'M VERY GLAD YOU COULD JOIN US TODAY, AJ! IT'S BEEN AWHILE SINCE THE FOUR OF US GOT TOGETHER!" Papyrus said with his usual blinding smile.

"Two weeks _is_ a long time." AJ agreed. "So, what we gonna do today?"

"How about we do something outside?" The child suggested with her usual smile.

"You're really determined to make me stay in the sun, huh?" The boy asked rhetorically.

"Gee, I wonder why she'd be determined?" Sans asked sarcastically, and Frisk simply giggled in response.

"SHALL WE HEAD TO THE BACKYARD, THEN?" Papyrus asked.

"How about we just go to that big field east of town?" Sans suggested in response.

"I think 'big' kind of understates the fact that the field stretches across- and right in front of- the entire east edge of the city until it reaches the mountains, like, _geez_ that thing is miles of huge." AJ responded.

"And it has patches of flowers all over it!" The younger human added cheerfully.

"Yeah, hard to miss the bright clumps of color." Sans responded with a smile.

"You think there's color now, just wait till spring, when all the flowers bloom, and my allergies start trying to kill me." The taller human said. "The whole place gets covered in yellow and purple and everything else."

"THE ENTIRE FIELD IS COVERED WITH FLOWERS!?" Papyrus asked in disbelief.

"Wow. Having allergies must really suck around here." The shorter skeleton commented sympathetically.

"Yeah, well, it's led to everyone being really on point around Onyx. You _always_ take what you need to to keep the allergies at bay, and if you ever forget, you suffer hardcore, which is why that's like the one thing my memory never fails me with." AJ responded. "Anyway, yeah, let's go. That has to be the one outdoor place I like to go to, when it's not spring, anyway. Shortcut?"

"Sure." Sans said with a nod before they were all teleported.

* * *

In the blink of an eye, there was a lot more open space around them. Lots of grass, though patchy in some places. A few small, random hills. Flowers scattered about ahead of them in hues of blue and yellow. As soon as she looked up, Frisk grabbed her fellow human's hand and started towards the flowers.

"I STILL WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU CAN DO THAT." Papyrus spoke, squinting at his brother.

"Don't worry so much about it." The other skeleton said before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking in the direction the humans went. Papyrus followed.

The girl stopped as soon as they reached this particular large cluster of flowers and crouched down to look at them. AJ stood next to her and admired the colors as a breeze came by. It made a wave as it swept through the grass and the flowers before blowing past them. There was a chill to it, but noticeably less than just a few weeks earlier.

"Feeling more like February already." The boy commented.

"I can't wait for all the flowers to come back!" Frisk said excitedly.

"Guessing you're gonna make like a million flower crowns?" The taller human said jokingly.

"You think I should?" The child asked with an excited gasp.

"No, that'd be ridiculous!" He answered.

"What? Come on!" She complained. "Now that you put the idea in my head, I want to make flower crowns for everyone!"

"But it'd take you days to do them all!" He pointed out.

"So?" Frisk asked.

"It'd be hard to hang out during those days, believe it or not!" AJ responded.

The girl looked away from him and went back to picking flowers. "Well I'd only do a little at a time." She said.

With that, there was no real way for the debate to continue. "Well… good." He responded before walking a few steps and lying down to relax. It was still cold so he was able to lie down and be confident there were no ants nearby, though he did look around him to be sure.

"Hey, something I can get behind." Sans said as he lay down next to the older human.

"REALLY, YOU TWO? YOU'RE JUST GOING TO LAZE AROUND?" Papyrus asked, annoyed.

"Well yeah, that's what you do in places like this." AJ answered.

The shorter skeleton lazily raised his arm up into the air and waved them over. "You should join us, Pap. It's the best way to watch the clouds go by."

"Oh! That sounds fun!" Frisk said before setting down her bundle of flowers and walking over to where her friends were laying. Papyrus watched as three of his friends all relaxed together and stared up at the sky.

"Only one left is you now, bro." Sans said.

The taller skeleton gained a tense look. After some deliberation, he slowly stepped towards the space next to his brother. As if fighting against his own body, The Great Papyrus, who was definitely not sweating, managed to lie down on the grass. After only a few seconds of stillness, the monster began making noises of discomfort and shifting around.

"Are you okay?" Frisk asked, slightly concerned.

"I DO NOT ENJOY LYING STILL LIKE THIS." The younger monster admitted.

"How do you sleep?" AJ asked.

"BEGRUDGINGLY." Papyrus deadpanned.

The youngest one stood up. "Well, we could go look at the flowers if you want?" She suggested to the tense monster.

"SURE!" The tallest one responded enthusiastically and quickly stood up. In two large steps he followed the human and crouched along with her as they admired the plants. "THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT FLOWERS HERE ON THE SURFACE! AND THEY'RE ALL SO PRETTY!"

"They sure are! This right here is a-" Frisk explained anything that came to mind from Toriel's personal teachings of plants and flowers.

"Heh, I was expecting some quiet out here." The teen said as he continued to stare upwards.

"Well, you know, when you're around Papyrus long enough, you don't expect quiet." Sans responded. "I don't mean to brag, but I've kinda become an expert at making silence out of being around Papyrus."

AJ let out a chuckle. "Well, lucky you."

"The key is to hear nothing, while at the same time listening so you can respond to a question." The older skeleton said with a grin.

"Ah yes, the old 'do one thing and the opposite thing at the same time' thing. Greeeaaat advice." The boy said sarcastically with his own grin.

"Yep. All you need to do is ask and I will deliver you _quality_ useless advice." Sans said, getting a laugh from his friend.

"Why thank you! I will keep that in mind." AJ responded dramatically. He noticed a break in any interesting clouds close by, so he decided to sit up and admire the flowers they were next to. "It's funny how like half the weird things around our town are pretty much explained by magic's weirdness. Like, everywhere else these flowers wouldn't be around in the middle of winter, but they were. Even when it snowed there were still these sporadic patches of bright, healthy flowers, as if they were still in spring. Knowing that enough magical energy can affect its surroundings kind of explains that. Weird building made of indestructible stone? Turns out it really was magic. Don't suppose Alphys already found another one of those things yet?"

"Well I haven't been called over yet." Sans answered.

"Fair enough, I'd be surprised if she had." The teen commented.

"She said she was so interested in finding them she couldn't help but go looking today. Though she said the recording for the video was only put off till tomorrow." The monster said.

"Oh, alright." The human responded.

"Hey, AJ!" Frisk called out as she came back from the opposite side of the flower patch. "Come here! I want you to see something cool!"

"Man, I'd love to, Frisk, but I'm just…" He lay back down and lazily lifted up his arm towards her. "I'm too lazy. You're gonna have to pull me up."

The girl let out a sigh and pouted at him a moment. Seeing that his grin showed no sign of fading, she rolled her eyes and decided to pull him up. She grabbed him by the wrist with both hands and started pulling, finding little success.

"Come on, are you even trying?" AJ taunted.

Growing just a pinch annoyed with him, the small one decided to imbue the muscles in her arms with soul energy and use the increased strength to easily pull the boy up.

"AGH!" He exclaimed as he was suddenly pulled up so hard that he fell past her and nearly landed flat on his face, only catching himself with his forearms at the last second.

"Oh! Sorry! Are you okay?" Frisk asked, concerned.

"You're the one who threw me and you're asking if I'm okay?" The boy asked as he stood up.

"I mean, you were kind of asking for it." Sans commented.

"I didn't throw you!" The child defended.

"I know, I know, I'm joking." AJ responded with a smile. "What cool flower did you want me to see?"

Frisk began guiding him to the other end of the flower patch, with Papyrus following, and sans deciding the nearby hill looked like a better spot to relax.

"Well, all the yellow flowers right here are poppies, right?" The child asked.

"Sure." The boy answered, not at all sure that they were.

"Well, they are." She said, knowing he didn't listen to Toriel much when she told them about flowers. "But there are a few flowers in the corner here that aren't poppies! Look, these are buttercups!"

The two taller members of the group crouched down to see what she was pointing at, three small buttercup flowers hiding under the poppies around them.

"Huh, you're right." AJ noted.

"OH! I RECOGNIZE THESE!" Papyrus realized.

"I'd hope so! There are a lot of these things in the throne room." AJ commented.

"VERY MANY! THEY SAID KING ASGORE TOOK GREAT CARE OF THEM!" The skeleton said.

"I love buttercups, cause whenever I see them, I remember the day we fell into the Underground." Frisk said before giggling for a moment. "The best day of my life, for sure!"

"That was definitely the beginning of a better life." The older human agreed.

"So meeting me wasn't the best day of your life?" The girl asked, sounding hurt.

"It was the best day _for_ my life, but I also got hurt a lot that day. I don't know that I really have a 'best day ever' thing. Just pick any day where we got to hang out and do nothing important all day and that'd probably work just fine." The teen said with a shrug.

Frisk blushed a little and smiled brightly as she let out a joyful giggle.

"I HAVE AN IDEA, HUMANS!" Papyrus said suddenly, standing up straight. "WHY DON'T WE ALL PLAY A GAME TOGETHER?"

"You can leave me out of that one…" Sans lazily requested from the nearby hill he'd relocated to.

"OH COME ON, SANS! IT WOULD BE FUN, HAVING ALL OF US DOING SOMETHING OUTSIDE TOGETHER INSTEAD OF THE VIDEO GAMES YOU AND AJ INSIST ON!" The tol skel shouted over to his brother.

"And I'm gonna keep insisting on that." AJ spoke up. "Also, yeah, no, gonna sit this one out too. I haven't gotten a good chance to relax in the grass yet." He started to walk away in sans' direction.

Frisk quickly grabbed the boy by his sleeve. "No! Come on, AJ!" She begged. "Let's play tag!"

"Tag? Seriously?" The boy deadpanned.

"Yeah!" The younger human answered. "And we'll start with you!" She said as she quickly reached out to him. "Tag! You're it!"

He could not believe she honestly wanted to do something so childish. "No, Frisk, wait-"

She quickly ran away as he stepped towards her. "Nope! You gotta catch me!" She taunted.

The teen's shoulders sank for a moment before he suddenly turned his head and set his sights on Papyrus.

"NYEH!?" Papyrus let out a fearful noise as he was suddenly feeling like he was being hunted. He then turned around and ran at a speed that was definitely beyond the boy's current abilities, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

AJ stared wide eyed for a moment. "Right, trained with Undyne…" He realized. "Alright then, Frisk!" He then turned and ran as fast as he could after her. She quickly ran from him, childishly laughing all the while. She swerved randomly to avoid him before eventually making a wide turn around him and heading back the way they came. At his full speed, the older Dreemurr was gaining on her, and just as he got in range and reached out, she jumped into the air and landed behind him. He skid to a stop and spun around. "Oh, so _that's_ how it's gonna be, eh?" He said threateningly upon realizing she had used her magic. He filled his muscles with soul energy as he gained a scary grin, and she did the same with an excited one.

The two humans then sped off at noticeably higher speeds than before, and Papyrus was soon actually threatened with being tagged. He had to hold back for them to actually catch him though. The three of them found the simple game exhilarating and fun and ended up playing for more than the five minutes that AJ figured this would last.

* * *

Having been momentarily tired out from playing with the energized child, AJ decided to walk up a small rise in the grand field. He stopped at the top of the low-quality hill and sat down in the patchy grass next to sans. The two of them watched Papyrus and Frisk continue playing around, with the monster chasing the child around until she tripped and landed in a bed of grass and colorful flowers and started laughing even more than she had been. Papy picked up the child and raised her over his head and began walking around triumphantly as she tried in vain to get him to put her down.

"I HAVE CAPTURED THE HUMAN!"

"Geez..." The teen said with a tired chuckle.

"Those two sure have a lot of energy, huh?" The shorter skeleton asked with a grin.

The boy nodded in agreement. "Mhm."

Sans glanced down at his bony hand and felt the grass under it. He looked up at the bright blue sky as a breeze came through and the shadow of a small cloud passed close by. "Moments like these sure make you appreciate life." He commented.

"Yep." AJ agreed.

Sans watched the human tilt his head back slightly as his chest heaved from him taking a long, deep breathe through his nose. Then he let the air escape between his lips with a small smile as he looked back down at the younger human and the tol skel. Sans was surprised by the light in his eyes. He'd never seen them that bright before.

"It's nice to know you don't have to worry about a friend." The skeleton randomly said, smiling.

"Hmm?" AJ hummed, confused.

"It's just nice to know that Frisk does for you what Pap does for me." Sans answered.

"Oh, well… yeah." The teen responded looking away with a shy smile.

"I can't help but notice that breath you just took. You seem to be enjoying yourself." The skeleton pointed out.

"Yeah, well… life is kinda special… isn't it?" The boy asked hesitantly.

"Really? Cause I still remember what you told me, in front of the MTT Resort." The monster pointed out.

"Yeah, I know…" AJ acknowledged with a frown that soon went away as he watched his friends admire the flowers. "I just… I kinda had a change of belief, some time ago. I know it's because I'm happier now, and I have Frisk, but… I realized that even though life doesn't have any inherent meaning, or reason, that doesn't really have to matter. If there is no reason, then the only thing that really matters is being happy, right? There's no point to life if you can't find some decent amount of time to be happy. I wasn't happy before, I was always stressed and angry thanks to school and it's… stuff, not even including my parents. And the way things are now, I was pretty much destined to spend my whole life in whatever job I found, just to make any money at all. I was never going to have any time to myself, never have any time to enjoy a simple video game for any meaningful amount of time, and what would have been the point in that?

But now, I get paid to work with my friends as they create super cool stuff that will make the world better, and I have a home that I'm actually happy to come back too. And every time I wake up, the first thing I see is this adorable, smiling child that's happy just to see me. I've never had that. I've never had someone care so much about me." He brought his arms close and hugged himself. "Toriel and Frisk helped me learn what being loved feels like."

The child looked up from the flowers and saw her friends looking at them. She smiled and waved at them, to which they waved back.

"It's… really hard for me say out loud, cause I've never actually done it before, but… I absolutely adore that kid." AJ said. "They're the most precious thing in the world to me. I don't just live for her because I promised to, but because I really want her to be happy. Just seeing them smile, just knowing that she's happy, is all I need, cause once she's happy, I am too. I know I'm keeping my promise, I know that I'm helping someone be happy. And honestly, having a kid care about you so much… is just so nice. She just makes me so happy…" He ended up covering his face with both his hands, though the skeleton could still see the edge of his smile. "I honestly can't put how I feel into words half the time, I just end up gushing over her like an idiot. And I know I care more than I should, but there's not really much I can do about that. The dumb kid cares about me to the point that it's stupid, and I guess I just end up doing the same."

Sans let out a chuckle. "You know, some would say it isn't healthy to care about someone more than yourself, to have your happiness depend on theirs." The teen went to speak up, but the monster continued before he could. "I'd say 'whatever' to those people, cause I totally get what you mean. I can't possibly be happy if my brother is having a bad day. Thankfully, he almost never is, so I get to see his bright smile and just immediately be cheered up."

"Totally the same with her. I don't see how anyone can be having a bad day when she's smiling." The human responded.

"How can anyone have a bad day at all around them?" The monster asked rhetorically.

"But what pocket dimension do they get all that energy from!?" AJ asked, and they both laughed.

"So, you been asked much lately how you and Frisk get along so well?" The skeleton asked with a grin.

"Ugh, I feel like we get asked that more and more as time goes on, which is weird, cause you'd think they'd get it eventually." The boy answered.

Sans let out a chuckle. "Heh. Well, I'm sure you understand why though."

"Of course I know. Just four, five months ago, I would have thought being that happy was just part of a fairy tale." The taller one answered.

"Well, don't feel bad about the way you are with her. People will try to twist it into something bad, but they're usually just jealous. Nothing wrong with you two being happy." Sans said.

"I don't even have a choice half the time." AJ deadpanned. "Like you said, Frisk's so… affectionate, that she can't just be calm in public. But she's an awesomely smart and caring kid, so she actually listens when I say something is _too_ embarrassing." He was embarrassed just talking about it. "But then she only listens to me in public and stops caring when we're home. I didn't know people could _be_ as affectionate as she is with everyone. Just, like... _all_ the hugs."

"She is definitely a hugger." Sans agreed. "More than that though, keep being the way you are because, well it's pretty nice to be around you two. I think most people around you would agree with me on that." The skeleton commented. "Watching you two interact is just so… interesting. With just a glance you can see that these two people have a special bond you don't normally see, and if you just stick around, some of it just kind of rubs off on you and you end up feeling really happy for some reason. I agree with Alphys' idea that you both are people who are just very intense when you show love, but I also think there's just some connection between you two. Like… like you're soul siblings."

"And what exactly are soul siblings?" The teen asked.

Sans scratched the back of his skull sheepishly. "To be honest, I kinda just made that up right now." He admitted. "But, what I was going for is that it seems like you and the kid are just meant to be together. Not like soul mates, together, but like best friends that were destined to find each other. It's just that in your case you guys act like brother and sister." He paused for a just a moment. "You guys really do look like brother and sister too. Besides your hair color, you two don't look that much alike, especially with that eye color of hers! But… sometimes you guys have the same pose, or the same look on your face, or you end up totally in sync in other ways, and for a few moments you guys seem more like blood relatives than just best friends. Maybe my 'soul siblings' thing has some truth to it, eh?"

"Maybe." AJ answered in contemplation. "Though I can't really say, we aren't both in front of a mirror much."

The skeleton chuckled. "True." They were both silent for a few moments. "Do you… ever tell Frisk any of this?"

"Well not _all of it_ , of course, but… I try to tell her some of it, when I can." He answered, a bit embarrassed. "I just… feel like it's the least I can do."

Sans acknowledged his answer with a hum, though he didn't seem all that focused.

"Why do you ask?" The boy asked curiously.

"I just… I know that Pap knows I care, but I still don't say it much and, well… I kinda feel like I should say something more often, or like, at all." The monster explained.

"Well hey, that's not something you should worry about." AJ started. "If you want to, go ahead, it's nice to hear, but don't feel bad about it. If you're close enough to someone, you don't have to say it. Even showing through actions isn't really necessary, just a nice thing. Just… don't feel pressured and feel like you have to say something, alright? Just say how you feel if you want to."

The older skeleton smiled a bit at that. "Thanks… I'll think about it a bit more."

The two older brothers turned and noticed their younger siblings coming towards them. Frisk walked up to AJ with a flower crown in her hands.

"Look what I made!" The girl said cheerfully.

"Let me guess. The first of a million?" The teen guessed.

"Well, actually it's the second. I made one for Papy first." Frisk said, pointing at the skeleton next to her.

"NOW I CAN TAKE THE BEAUTY OF NATURE WITH ME WHEREVER I GO!" Papyrus exclaimed.

AJ let out an offended gasp. "You made one for him _first_!? How could you!?" He asked dramatically.

"Sorry… He was closer and he really wanted to see me make a flower crown." Frisk answered apologetically.

The boy crossed his arms and looked away from her. "I don't know if I can forgive you for this…"

"Do you want the second one or not?" The child asked.

Abandoning the joke, AJ looked back at her and smiled. "Yes please." He sat still and accepted the crown as it was placed on his head. It looked just like the one on Papyrus, an even pattern of yellow and blue flowers, one after the other. "Thank youuu." He said childishly.

"You're welcome!" Frisk responded before turning to the last of the three. "Now all we need is sans to wear one."

"I'm guessing I don't have a choice in the matter?" Sans asked.

"Nope!" Frisk answered before approaching him and placing the crown on him.

"In case you care, you look fine." AJ commented.

"Not sure if I believe that." The slightly embarrassed skeleton responded.

"Oh come on! You look great!" The younger human insisted.

"YOU DO, BROTHER! THE BRIGHT COLORS REALLY BRING OUT YOUR EYE LIGHTS!" Papyrus said.

Sans cocked an "eyebrow" in surprise before chuckling for a moment. "Well, if _you_ say so, it _must_ be true."

"OF COURSE IT IS!" The taller skeleton said with a smile before posing proudly. "AND I'M SURE I LOOK EVEN BETTER WEARING THIS CROWN OF FLOWERS!" He exclaimed before looking down at Frisk and smiling gratefully. "THANK YOU FOR MAKING THESE FOR US, FRISK!"

"You're welcome!" The girl said happily. "Oh! Right!" She said in realization before taking the last flower crown and bringing it over to AJ. "Here!"

The teen chuckled in amusement. "Right." He took it gently and stood up so he could place the last crown on her head. "There ya go." Frisk let out a joyful giggle before hugging him tightly. He simply messed with her hair in response. "You know, it's hard to sit down with you clinging to me like this."

Hearing this, she let go of him and let him lay back down in the grass before lying down next to him. Her big, contagious smile never fading all the while.

"Stop being adorable, you." AJ requested, ruffling up the laughing child's hair.

Papyrus let out a sigh as he saw his friends were all lying on the grass once again. "WELL, IF YOU ALL INSIST ON BEING LAZY…" He sat down next to his brother. "I SUPPOSE I WILL SIMPLY HAVE TO WATCH OVER YOU THREE WHILE YOU STARE INTO SPACE!" He announced.

"Heh… Thanks, bro." Sans said after a moment of thought.

* * *

 **Just imagine they continued the happy day, cause they did, I'm just not writing all of it cause then we'd** _ **really**_ **be here forever.**

 **Just letting you know I have no idea how long the next few chapters will be. I expect them to be not terribly long, but then again I didn't think this chapter would be as long as it was, so… we'll just have to see. The problem is as much as I want to continue the story, the actual writing part is hard to start doing, and hard to keep doing. Also these days it's just too easy to come across something that puts me in a bad mood and I can't write when I'm like that. I still don't intend to stop though. Even if it takes me a long time, I'm still trying, and I'm not stopping.**

 **I am going to try working on that, hopefully each chapter will take less time than the last. Or, you know, maybe I could just go straight to reasonable times. IF ONLY.**

 **Hope you all don't hate me too much for all this and I hope you have a VERY good day and a great week!**

.

.

.

"How can we stare into space when there's nothing but a blue sky?" The older human asked while continuing to stare upwards. His smart-alecky-ness made Frisk chuckle.

Finally, sans and AJ got to have a full few minutes of silence as they all just enjoyed the moment. Sans was actually the one to break the silence.

"So… since we have access to the whole world now, and we have so much time in our lives… I kinda feel like we should have some grand goal or something." The skeleton randomly spoke up.

"World peace?" The teen offered.

"Well yeah!" Frisk agreed.

"WHAT'S BETTER THAN THAT?" Papyrus asked rhetorically.

"Fair enough. What would you do to make that happen?" Sans asked curiously.

"Nothing." The boy answered, shocking them.

"HUH!?" Papyrus exclaimed.

"What do you mean!?" The girl asked.

"Well I'm one person, I can't bring peace to the world." AJ answered. "…Can make it a bit nicer though." He added. "Making sure people know right from wrong, encouraging them to do the right thing… You do enough of that and people end up being kinder to each other. That's all us people can do after all, we're too small to really affect the world. All we can really do is protect those we care about, and be kind to those around us. That collective kindness will make the world more bearable for everyone with a heart." In the moment that he paused, he realized how suddenly he'd gone on that tirade and grew embarrassed. "I mean, that's, what I think anyway. It's more realistic that trying to create world peace all by yourself, right?" He looked around and saw his friends were all just smiling at him. "Guys?... Come on. Someone answer me. What are you laughing about? Guys?..."


	37. A Simple Reveal

**This one's mostly an update on what Alphys is making with hologram technology, so it's not that long. Next one will definitely be longer though.**

 **Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.37

* * *

"Alright, Alphys, we're here!" AJ greeted as he stepped down into the lab of Dr. Alphys.

"Hi, Alphys!" Frisk greeted as well as she came down alongside the teen.

"Hey, guys!" Alphys greeted back, waving to them as she stood near the center of her testing area.

As the two humans walked further into the lab, they noticed the female monster was standing next to a large metal crate. That metal crate had a camera placed on it that was facing towards where Alphys was standing.

"Don't you have a tripod?" The boy asked.

The scientist's eyes widened for a moment. "I do. What am I doing?" She deadpanned as she walked off and went into sans' portion of the lab. The two Dreemurr's chuckled.

Now that they had a tripod and camera where the crate used to be, Alphys hit the record button before turning to face her friends. "Okay, we're ready to go?"

"Yeah, but, why are we already recording?" AJ asked, confused.

"Oh don't worry, I'll just edit in the parts we get right." The monster answered. "Although, I want your reactions to be real, so whatever happens when I first show you what I've made for the presentation is going to be part of it."

"For better or worse?" The teen asked.

Alphys let out a sigh. "Yeah... Let's just try to not mess up too much then." She requested.

"We'll do our best!" Frisk said passionately.

The scientist smiled at that. "Well, the less time we take, the less chance for a mess-up, right? I'm not going for some over the top announcement, anyway. I just want to show them what I'm working on is all."

"Well you should probably be the one to start, then." AJ pointed out.

"Right." Alphys said with a nod and turned to the camera with a determined expression. She took a breath and prepared herself. Things like this made her tense, anxious, but also a bit excited.

"Hello, everyone." She started with a simple smile. "As I'm sure you already know, I'm Doctor Alphys. I made this video because I've been working on how to combine magic and modern technology to create items that would be useful to all, and during these months, I've made both something useful, and something that is useful, but also kinda cool, so I wanted to show them to you all! Let me be clear though that this is just to show what I'm working on. I am not satisfied with their quality yet, and more importantly, they aren't being mass produced yet. This is just to let people know these things exist." She started looking just a bit embarrassed. "And uh, also if you want to support me so these can be sold to the public someday, there will be a link to go do that at the end of the video." She then regained her composure. "Anyway, which do you guys think we should show first? Cool new stuff, or the useful stuff you should be familiar with?" She asked the humans.

"Cool stuff!" The child answered immediately.

"I think the idea is 'best for last'?" AJ suggested.

"Alright." The monster said with a nod before walking out of frame.

"What!? Don't you wanna see the cool stuff!?" Frisk asked, tugging on his sleeve.

"Of course I do, but that's not how you get people interested." The older human explained as he shook his arm to get her to let go. As easy as it would be to ask for the cool stuff first, he was trying to think in Alphys' best interests. Though what did he know about advertising?

"In that case, here." The scientist said as she casually tossed the hilt-shaped device to the teen. Now back in frame, she looked to the camera. "This device allows a human mage to shape their soul energy into whatever forms are programmed into it. Just have the dial set to what you want, press the button, and push your soul energy into the device."

The boy did each step as she spoke them and soon, green energy came out of the end of the device and took the shape of a simple nail hammer. He turned the dial a few times and watched it become a handsaw, a wrench, a spatula, a cutting knife, a really big spoon…

"Not gonna lie, _still_ don't have a good name for them!" AJ commented.

"Yeah, we aren't the best with coming up with names…" Alphys agreed with him before looking back at the camera. "With things like this, less metal would be spent on a variety of tools that eventually break. You'd just have to make these and then you would have everything you'd need. The reason I'm not trying to make this available to the public yet is that I want more variety with them. Going through a lot of options is never fun, so I wanna make one for work tools, one for kitchen stuff, and things like that. Of course, one that's just a crazy multi-tool would be an option as well. Can I have that back now?"

"Mhm." The taller human handed the device back to his monster friend and she walked away just a bit faster than usual. She found what she was looking for and hid them in her coat pockets. On the way back they realized she was moving faster because she was excited. "So what's the cool new thing?" AJ asked.

"Yeah! Show us, Alphys!" Frisk requested excitedly.

"In a moment, guys, be patient." The doctor requested. She held up her arm so the pad wrapped around it was clearly in view. "Well, uh… there's no real other way to say it…" She pressed the on button and a screen appeared in front of her. "I made holograms a thing." She announced to the world. "And the best part is, you don't have to be a mage to use them, as you can see! They need so little magical energy to create a hologram out of, but they just take it in from the air around us. And that's exactly what this is, by the way, just magical energy made to take shape like this. I've been working on this the most, trying to design many different variations, which I think I'll make videos on those later. Anyway, _here_ is the cool stuff, you two!"

From within her pockets, Alphys pulled out two dark grey, circular disks that were flat on one side. "I had a sudden moment of inspiration, and I decided to design some hologram generators that were purely cosmetic." She handed one to Frisk. "Here, put this one on your arm, right about here, where you'd put an armband." She pointed to her upper arm.

The child stuck the disk onto her left sleeve as directed, and the monster pressed the on button for it. Frisk gasped as it projected a flat, pixelated version of a human soul. "Whoa! That's so cool!"

"Oh! That's certainly one use for them." AJ commented, surprised.

"Yep!" Alphys agreed with a smile. "I just program a single shape for one of these and you can use them for personal emblems, or just for your own bit of flair. Oh! Also, I made these ones capable of taking in soul energy if you want to change the color for them."

The girl's eyes lit up when she changed the color of the hologram to match her own soul. "This is awesome!"

"Ha! That fits perfectly for you!" The teen commented as he admired the little pixelated heart in front of the kid's arm. 'It's like her own little emblem!'

"It sure does!" Alphys agreed. "Just a small pulse of soul energy should let it keep that color for awhile. I haven't actually tested that feature yet, but my calculations basically guarantee a half an hour at the very least."

""Cool!"" The humans both responded.

The monster scientist turned to the older human. "You think _that's_ cool, wait till you see what I have for you."

"Oh you made one for me, too?" AJ asked.

"Yep. Just hold still for a moment." Alphys requested, holding the other small hologram generator. She walked behind him and stood on her tip-toes to put the device on his upper back, right between his shoulders. "Eh! Got it!" She said as she just managed to press the on button.

The boy looked over his shoulder and tried to see the emblem, and when he did he went silent aside from a long gasp. Rather than a flat emblem, it was a hologram of a small wing, no bigger or longer than your forearm, appearing to come out from his back if you weren't behind him. It was still a static image though. " _Aesthetic_ …" He whispered in awe. "Alphys you are AWESOME!" He shouted with a big smile.

"Hehe… I thought you'd like that." The lizard said with an embarrassed smile. "I was going to make full wings to surprise you, but then I found out holo-tech of this size can't make a projection that long, so I had to settle for smaller ones. Do you want me to get the other one for you?"

"Uh, no thanks. One fits me better." AJ answered.

Alphys looked confused at that. "How so?"

The teen looked embarrassed. "Well, as much as I love the look of angel wings and stuff, I have this dumb thought that two wings are reserved for really powerful beings, and I'm not that, so I only want one." He explained.

The monster was now looking at him like he was just being silly. "That's not dumb. If anything, that sounds like some anime concept."

"Actually, its… it's more for the stories I think up in my head." He answered hesitantly.

"Oh yeah, I have a ton of those, too!" Alphys responded with a chuckle.

AJ's eyes widened for a moment in realization before looking back the camera. "Oh! Uh, we should, probably…"

"Hm?" Alphys hummed, before figuring out what he meant. "Oh! Don't worry, I was already going to edit this out."

The collective world pretty much lost it once all of Alphys' preview videos on her magic hologram tech had been posted. Emblems, devices that were like phones themselves (which the human Dreemurr's were familiar with), devices that displayed your phone's screen, the holo-pad that went on your arm, even holographic smart home systems. There was plenty of positive letters from the scientific community for her, as well as a few angry jealous ones. The internet was especially all over the news of holograms, and many artists sent in emblems they wanted to see her make someday. Some artists even made drawings of themselves and friends with their own holo-emblems, since they couldn't buy any of their own yet. It would still be awhile before these would be released to the public, but the positivity and excitement of the next few days was a nice change of pace from the norm. It was encouraging for Alphys, and she worked especially hard then as she dreamed about her holograms someday being as normal a thing as smartphones are now.

 **Yeah that's all I have on that for now so we'll just end it here.**

 **I'll continue doing my best to not take a month to write the next chapter. In the meantime I hope you all have a good time.**

* * *

 **Also as a silly thing- I decided to expand the list of things you can make with the magic shaping devices. Obviously not canon XD.**

 **If you don't get any of these references we can't be friends**

 **I'm kidding you're awesome have a great day.**

…handsaw, a wrench, a spatula, a cutting knife, a really big spoon, a slightly bent really big spoon that definitely isn't a ladle, a small cup, a salt shaker, a mouse pad, a head that won't stop screaming, the world's smallest violin, a blanket, entrenching tool, avionics trawl, troll smasher, stellar sextant, compass aligner, flare gun, water purifier, global positioning system, encyclopedia arcana, personal flotation device, a big cup, a soul gem, a voodoo doll, a straw, a selfie stick, a keyboard, a wifi router, your TV remote, _the launch codes_ , a handheld fan, Determination, a doorbell, a bone, a pillow, a smoke detector, world peace, The Philosopher Stone, a collection of memes, an extra pair of jeans, the next chapter, **a portal to the underworld,** a spoiler alert, a CD, a USB cord that plugs in the first time, the rest of the skeleton, error 404, a hat, good teammates, DEMOCRACY!, a pepper shaker, my future, darn it it's gone, the secret to immortality, a black hole, happiness, a temmie, why tho, a door, a gift for you, Christmas lights, The Sun, a bird cage, a phone charger, a tree, a soft pillow, a bed, I'm tired, goodnight.


	38. Training Montage

**So the only thing I could think of when I started writing this is that I forgot to say thank you for the really nice reviews you guys left in the chapter before the last one. Saying it was really nice doesn't quite fit, but I don't want to get all dramatic about it. So, yeah, thank you for being awesome, and that means all of you who continue to read this story even now.**

 **Then I realized this chapter was ALSO, going to end up much longer than I expected, but this time it was because I ended up doing things differently from what I originally had planned.**

 **Oh yeah and I'm just gonna stop saying that I'm trying to cut down on the time it takes to write these, cause obviously things are just going to keep coming up, and I also just can never bring myself to write on any given day. Like for the first month after the last post I didn't write much because I was in constant physical pain, and it was only after a month I realized the situation was hopeless and it wasn't going to go away any time soon…**

 **And to make things worse I'm going to be starting classes in January, which will almost certainly reduce my writing speed. All I can really say is that I'm really sorry. I never wanted to be one of those writers that doesn't post a chapter for a month+, but clearly I can't do a damn thing about it anymore. Just know that I still want to show the world more of this story. You'll hear it from me if I actually stop writing. Also if I don't post for a whole year I'm probably dead. Hoping that doesn't happen though because again, I want to write.**

 **Despite all that, I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.38

* * *

(Distant – Oneshot OST)

The first thing he noticed as he came to his senses was the sound of boots stepping through tall grass. He then opened his eyes and realized he was walking down a grassy hill that he found strangely familiar. He came to the realization that his legs were moving on their own, but just as he did, he gained control of his body and found he had no interest to stop walking, and continued down the hill without missing a beat. At the base of the hill was another grassy mound that he began walking up. The tall grass brushed against his face and he raised his arms up to keep them out of his vision. The blades reacted to his touch and sparkled with green energy, and he wondered why that was so familiar.

Upon reaching the top of the second hill, he saw that half way to the horizon was a great big tree that extended into the sky, and he couldn't tell if the top of the tree pierced through the clouds or if it was a cloud itself. He continued walking, up and down each hill that lay in his path. He couldn't bring himself to do anything else, or think of anything else, he just wanted to reach the tree. After what felt like a strangely short amount of time, he crossed over the last of the grassy hills, and all that was left was the mile of open space that surrounded the great tree. He blinked and he was there, and now he stood before the giant object. He was able to see the wood up close and in detail, and he was able to look up and see the impossibly large tree reach beyond his sight.

He relaxed and took a breath. It came so naturally and easily, and he'd never known that the breathing he'd done all his life had been so obstructed. Every thoughtless movement, every thought, every beat of his heart. Standing beneath this tree made every natural thing he'd done up to this point feel forced and difficult by comparison. He felt amazing, he felt clear, he felt light and full of life. His very soul was filled with something, something good that he just couldn't explain, and he felt content to just stay here.

And then he felt something much less amazing, and much more simple than this tree. He felt the presence of someone behind him, and they were a little too close. He spun around quickly, ready to jump away from whoever was there, but the sudden action woke him up.

(Music ends)

* * *

Frisk's feet dangled off the edge of the couch excitedly as she heard a pair of footsteps slowly making their way down the stairs. She stared at the entrance to the living room with a wide, excited smile as AJ stepped around the corner, hair freshly combed after his shower. He saw her expression and smiled a little as he rolled his eyes.

"Frisk, come on." He commented as he specifically walked into the middle of the living room, putting the small wood table between him and the kid.

"What do mean, 'come on'? This is what I've been waiting for!" She responded, smile not fading as she sat there. "It needs my seal of approval!"

" _It's my shampoo,_ it doesn't need your approval!" The green soul pointed out.

"Yes it does!" Frisk countered adamantly. In one quick motion she jumped over the table and straight at him, hands aiming for his hair. He caught her in the air by her left wrist and right ankle, and leaned away as she continued reaching for his head with her free hand. "Come on! Just let me pet you! This is the best time to do it!"

"Actually it _isn't_. Our friends are gonna be here any minute, aren't they!?" AJ asked.

"That doesn't matter right now! I have to know!" The child continued squirming and trying with all her might to reach him, while he was trying to hold her as far away as possible.

"Gah! You're being ridiculous about this!" He commented as they struggled.

"I'll stop being ridiculous as soon as I know!" The determined mage exclaimed.

"Alright then stop squirming!" The boy demanded.

The request surprised her and she stopped for a moment. Being held above him, she looked down and saw him blushing with a look that said 'just get it over with.' He held her still so she could easily stroke his hair. She let out a long gasp as stars filled her eyes. " _It's even softer now…_ " She whispered. " _Yeeeeeesss! This is the greatest shampoo ever…"_ She said as she hugged his head and nuzzled into his hair.

"Frisk get off my head." He said as his blush grew.

"No!" She responded.

"Frisk get off my head!" He said more strongly.

She pouted before climbing down, but only slightly so she could continue playing with his hair.

"Get off _me._ " He requested exasperatedly.

The child let out a whine as she slowly slid down and off of him. "But it won't be soft forever…"

"Knowing Toriel, she'll definitely make me take another shower tonight, so you'll have another chance." He pointed out so she wouldn't be sad.

"Yay!" Frisk whispered.

"I do believe your friends are here, children." Toriel pointed out, looking out the nearby window.

"Guess we should go out and say hi, then." AJ said as he started towards the door, and the younger human followed with a smile as she got excited to see their friends.

Upon exiting their house, they saw three of their friends standing on the sidewalk and chatting. At the moment, Sarah was passionately going on about something they couldn't hear. Lilly and Josh noticed the Dreemurrs first, and the older girl looked over her shoulder to see what they were looking at.

"Oh! Hey, you two!" She said with a bright smile as she turned to them.

"Hi!" Frisk greeted with a wave.

"Heyo." AJ greeted.

"Hey." Josh greeted with a nod.

Lilly quietly smiled at Frisk, who smiled back.

"So, we're not gonna have everyone this time?" The older boy asked.

"Well I tried to get Adam to come along, cause he clearly needs it, but he wouldn't answer. He's probably off brooding somewhere or something." Alex answered.

"It's telling that we haven't even hung out that much and we already expect that from him." AJ commented with a smirk.

"Well it's his fault for always looking so angry…" The purple soul responded, pouting in annoyance from the fact that he acts that way.

"" _Angery._ "" The two Dreemurr's commented simultaneously, before they both burst out laughing at their timing. The others couldn't help but laugh as well.

The laughter from the red and green souls abruptly ended, with Frisk suddenly looking to her bestie with concern, and AJ starting to turn to his right to look down the sidewalk. The boy quickly raised his arms up in front of him in an X shaped guard as Alex's fist came flying in. The brave soul was stopped dead in mid-air as her orange trail caught up with her. The kind mage threw his arms out to push the girl back, and she landed roughly on her back before quickly recovering and growling in annoyance.

"And Alex wasn't here cause she wanted to ambush you." Josh spoke.

"And it didn't work, because of COURSE it didn't work!" Alex said, annoyed. "You just turned like you knew I was coming!"

"Well, you haven't had your magic as long as me." AJ responded.

Sarah awkwardly squeezed between the two boys to get in front of the other teen her age, her arms raised in a calming manner. "I'm, just, gonna step in _before_ you two get mad and start fighting. How about we go inside, and do fun stuff instead?"

"I'd prefer that, yeah, sure." The kind soul answered before turning to head inside.

"Good, cause I wanna have a free for all to start this off." The patient mage commented.

AJ imagined a screen littered with chaos. "Oh boy… that sounds fun!" He said with a chuckle as they all began walking towards the front door, with Frisk leading the pack.

The red head chuckled at that. "Well I hope you all can keep from crying when I wipe the floor with you!"

"And I hope you don't break our controllers if you end up losing." The green soul responded.

Sarah sweatdropped as they glared at each other. "Well, being competitive is better than fighting, I guess…" She heard a vehicle come to a stop close behind them. "Hmm? Is that Adam?" She wondered hopefully. "Wait. Does he have a car?"

The older Dreemurr turned around to see as well. "Well, he is old enough to-" He blinked twice. "I know that car." He suddenly sprinted across the yard without another word.

"Wait, wha- AJ!? Who is it!?" Sarah asked, getting everyone else's attention.

The driver's side door was starting to open when the boy jumped over the sleek, black hood of the vehicle and turned to the man as he stepped out. Johnson was met with wide eyes filled with shock, confusion, and just a bit of annoyance.

"What in the world are you doing here!?" AJ asked.

"Why do you look so shocked, my boy?" The mayor asked.

The casualness of the question caused the mage's expression to freeze for a moment. "You haven't talked to me for nearly two months!" He pointed out.

The man's friendly façade broke at that. "Well if you must know, all this magic and monsters business has left me with a lot of work to do almost constantly!" The sudden shift made the boy lean back a bit. "And I'm not just talking about meetings with the King and Queen, or even the ambassador child, I'm talking about PASSING DAMN LAWS!" Everyone flinched at his raised voice. "I practically had to BEG for rush order laws for the city, then for the county, then the state, and now we're trying to make them country wide, all to save lives! YOU'RE the one who insisted I do this as fast as possible to help the monsters, AND future mages, so EXCUSE ME if I don't have time to stop by!" He pointed out.

'And I _totally_ forgot that he doesn't hesitate to let his anger show if he's stressed out.' The cringing boy thought. "And I appreciate a thousand times over that you care about the monsters as much as you do, and have helped them out as much as you have." He said apologetically. "But why are you here _now_?" He asked.

"The police need your help." Mayor Johnson answered.

"What? Why?" AJ asked, incredibly confused.

"There's some criminal they can't catch and their mage division thinks you can help, since you have the most experience with soul magic. Now get in." The man ordered.

"Wait, right now!?" The teen asked, shocked. "My friends are over, I can't just leave!"

"Well that's not my fault! The Chief told me they have a plan tonight, so this can't wait." The mayor explained.

The boy's shoulders sank. "You've got to be kidding me…"

Johnson allowed himself to look sympathetic. "Look, I wish I didn't have to pull you away from them either, but with my experience, I can pretty easily say that sometimes things come up that matter more than your plans for the day."

"Yeah. Sometimes your parents kick you out and leave you for dead, and that _really_ messes with your plans to play video games all day." AJ said sarcastically, as it was the only way to safely express his anger.

The curious child walked over to them. "What's going on?" She asked.

"Well _apparently_ , I have to go." The boy answered.

"What!? No! You can't leave!" Frisk whined, before looking up at the mayor. "He can't go! Our friends are over! We're-"

"I know, Frisk, I can see them." The man cut her off. "But I need AJ to help with something important, and it cannot wait until later."

"Why? What are you doing?" The girl asked.

The teen looked at Johnson. "I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell you that."

"Yeah. Especially with the others there." The man commented.

"Oh come on! What's so important?" Frisk asked before just letting out a sad sigh. "When will you be back?"

AJ frowned at that and lifted her up to hug her. "Oooooh… Come on, Frisk, don't be sad… I can't stand it when you're sad…" He said sorrowfully.

"Then tell him no…" She requested into his shoulder.

He let out a sigh through his nose. "Frisk, it's important… I can't do that." He could tell this really upset her. "I'm really sorry, sis. Things like this just happen sometimes… Just have fun without me, and wait for me to come back tonight, okay?"

Rather than make a loud exclamation of surprise, she just let out an annoyed sigh. " _Tonight_? Really?"

"Yeah… it may take awhile. But I made a promise, so you don't have to worry about my safety or anything." The older boy commented.

"I _better_ not have to." The girl warned.

He couldn't help but smile at her adorable pout. "I won't let anything get in the way the next time they come over."

"We need to go." Johnson pointed out.

"Right." AJ responded with a nod as he began walking towards the passenger side door.

"Wait, AJ!" Frisk requested excitedly as she ran in front of him. She stopped and looked up at him expectedly.

"…What?" He asked after a moment, smirking.

"You know what." She answered with a grin.

He squinted at her in thought for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "No, _no_. Frisk, if you wanna make that a thing, we'll start next time I leave."

"No. Do it now." The red soul ordered.

"But everyone's watching." He pointed out, embarrassed.

"How is it embarrassing?" Frisk asked, confused.

"Because it's stupid." The kind soul answered.

"It's not stupid! And you already agreed to do it!" She said, angrily pointing at him.

"Because I thought I'd be doing it _without_ random people watching!" AJ exclaimed.

"Those aren't random people, they're our friends! Come on! Just do it so you can go already!" She demanded.

He grumbled before sighing. "Fine, but you're doing it with me, I'm not going first."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

They both then raised their hands to their chests, and made a heart shape with their hands, around their own glowing, magical hearts.

"Bye!" Frisk said, smiling brightly.

"Bye." AJ responded, smiling through his embarrassment.

And with that, Frisk let him get in the car without another complaint. As she went to turn away, she noticed the window roll down.

"Before I forget!" He called out to her, and she walked up closer. "Give a message to the others for me. If anything of mine is broken..." His face suddenly became deadly serious. " _I will punish all of you._ "

She tried not to look tense as she worried that applied to her as well.

"That way no one can blame it on someone else and get away with it!" The boy said with a false smile as he rolled the window back up.

* * *

AJ waited till they had started towards the main city before speaking up. "So, can you tell me any more about what exactly I have to do? Or why they need my help?" He asked.

"Well, I honestly don't know too much about the situation, so I can't elaborate much more." Johnson answered.

"You can still tell me what you can." The teen said.

"Alright. Well, what did I already tell you?" The man asked.

The mage squinted at him. "Do you even remember how to get to the station?" He deadpanned.

"HEY! You calling me senile!?" The mayor asked angrily.

"Watch the road." AJ said simply, his frustration keeping him unfazed. "If this is a big deal or something, shouldn't you know more about it?"

"Well, you see, me and the Chief go way back…" The man started.

"Oh, you're friends?" The green soul asked.

Johnson chuckled. "Oh no, he hates my guts. But we both respect each other and what we do."

"Well, at least there's that." AJ commented.

"Yeah. He sees no reason I should have my nose in his job, and I don't agree, but I trust him to handle most things. So it was quite surprising when he asked me to help him, and brought up the idea to get you over there."

"Wait, it was _his_ idea?" The boy asked, surprised.

"Actually, he said the veterans in his mage division came up with the idea to have you help them." Mayor Johnson answered.

The teen let out a single chuckle. " 'Veteran' is a bit of a stretch, don't ya think?"

"Well they're the ones who've had their powers the longest. He said they were already officers when their magic started showing up. They'd probably have been there when you were teaching in person, now that I think about it." The man commented.

"Oh you've _got_ to be kidding me…" The boy said into his palm as it met his face. "I'm just supposed to teach them the basics of their magic, and that's it. I'm not supposed to be some mentor they can call up when they need me. I'm not a good teacher…" AJ complained.

"This coming from the kid who basically taught the world how to use their magic." Johnson commented.

"Don't call me a kid." The mage warned.

* * *

After spending some time in city traffic, they finally parked in front of the police station. The large blue "Onyx Police Department" text was clearly placed above the front entrance.

"All I asked for was a normal life, and now I'm in front of the damn police station about to help them do what? Catch a criminal?" As always, AJ took a moment to appreciate the ridiculousness of life, specifically his life.

The mayor followed the boy as an officer guided them to the back of the station, where they entered a large, open room that policemen practiced hand to hand combat and grappling techniques. There were quite a few men and women near the edges of the dojo-like room, practicing moves on each other. But the kind soul was here for the three figures standing together in the middle of the room.

"Well, I have work to do, so I'm gonna get going. See you later." Johnson said as he turned back towards the front entrance.

"See you." The mage responded, watching him leave for a moment. With him and the guide now leaving to do their own things, AJ approached the three ahead of him.

On his left, was a dark skinned woman with frizzy black hair, standing with her hands on her hips. He guessed she was in her early thirties.

In front of him was a man in his mid-twenties with dark brown hair, his arms crossed as he grinned at the approaching teen.

To his right was a man of at least sixty judging by his grey hair and medium side mustache, as well as his somewhat wrinkled face. He was hunched over slightly with his hands behind his back.

The woman was the first to introduce herself, reaching her hand out with a friendly, but not overly so, smile. "Hi there! I'm Rebecca." She greeted. He shook her hand.

"Samuel." Greeted the older gentleman with a small, but kind, smile as he held out his hand next.

"And I'm William!" The final one greeted with a confident grin.

AJ could tell a few people off to the sides were looking at him. "And of course, you probably know me." He said with a sigh. "Just call me AJ." He requested.

"No problem." Rebecca responded.

"So, you three are the 'veteran' mages around here?" The boy asked.

"Well…" William started with a chuckle, clearly about to start bragging.

"Of the few mages that are among the police force, we're the only three to be there during your classes." Samuel answered.

"We're totally the best." The youngest of the officers said quickly.

"But 'veteran' isn't the right word for someone who's had their magic for barely a month." The old man added.

"That's what I said." The teen commented. "So, probably obvious question, but what exactly is the 'mage division'?"

"It's nothing much. Everyone among the force who can use soul magic gets some extra training for how to use it when on duty." The woman answered. "Though there isn't much to the training since it's brand new and people don't really know what to do with magic yet."

"They basically tell us to make use of our enhanced strength to easily detain people." Samuel said.

"Yeah. But they also give us more specific tips and training depending on our traits." William added.

"Oh yeah! What are your traits?" AJ asked curiously.

"Patience." Samuel answered.

"Justice!" William said proudly, his bright yellow soul appearing front and center.

"Perseverance." Rebecca answered as her purple soul came into view.

The kind soul couldn't help but smile. He had been approached by random mages who were excited or proud of their new powers, but they had always been teens or younger. There was something different about it being adults. He just always expects them to be serious, and not take part in things like magic. But that was the world they lived in. Magic did not discriminate. It became a part of people's lives at complete random.

"We should probably get started." Samuel pointed out.

"Right." Rebecca agreed with a nod.

"Right. You guys need me for something. How can I help?" AJ asked, genuinely wanting to know how he's supposed to help them.

"Well, quite simply, we're at a loss." The woman admitted.

"This criminal isn't the first to use magic." The oldest one started.

"Yeah, that's not the problem, cause we've beaten other mages before." William said.

"Although we've only had to deal with two others so far." Samuel pointed out.

"Yeah, if someone is using magic, that's what our mages are for. They can't resist when we're as strong as they are." Rebecca said. "Plus, I can outrun them."

"Though I usually detain them before that is necessary." The patient mage pointed out.

"And if anyone got out of hand, I'm a great shot and can wing them pretty quick." William commented.

"Yes, we're all good in our own rights. Unfortunately, I think we all would have had to have been there to catch this criminal." Samuel said, bitterly recalling the event that occurred yesterday. "He was nothing but a common thief, and I was the mage assigned to come with in case of an emergency. But when we tried to apprehend him, he moved with incredible speed and agility, knocking away the two officers in front of me. He came for me next, but I was able to block him and quickly tried to detain him with my magic. But he moved in such a strange way that I'd never seen before…"

"Huh. Sounds like a brave mage who knows how to use his speed to dodge and attack." AJ commented.

"No." Samuel said, confusing him. "The energy that came off him was red."

The boy's eyes widened slightly as he gave the man a serious look. "That's impossible. Alphys has _yet_ to get even a _single_ report of a mage with a red soul. Frisk is the only one with determination as their trait!"

"If you ask me… He learned he had magic, and kept it to himself. Not sure why he would do that though." The old man commented. "You know, I never got to say how impressed I was that a boy your age stepped up and taught all those people how to use their magical powers. I was the one who asked for your help, because I thought you would be the best person to go to for advice about this."

"But how am I supposed to help you? Do you want me to fight him with you!?" The confused teen asked.

"Oh no, we would never ask that of you!" Rebecca answered immediately.

"As officers, we're trained to resolve situations as quickly and as peacefully as possible. We are trained to detain people before they cause harm to anyone, but this man moved too fast for me to catch, and the way he fought me was so strange. He didn't try to run away, even when he had knocked me down, he didn't use the chance to escape. He used his whole body when he fought, like some sort of martial artist. I was mostly hoping for you to give us a fresh perspective on this, because none of us can think outside the box of our training. If even _your_ knowledge of soul magic cannot help us though, we can have someone give you a ride back home."

Suddenly it clicked in AJ's mind. Something about what he was saying was familiar, the mental image he was getting and the man's wording were forming a concept of a way of fighting that was very familiar to him. "So, let me get this straight, just to be sure. You try to end stuff as quick as possible. You use your strength to hold them down and handcuff them or whatever, right?"

"Yep." William answered.

"Yeah." Rebecca agreed.

"You don't, like, fight them until they can't fight back so you can detain them?" The boy asked.

"No!" Samuel exclaimed, as if the idea was preposterous. "Why would we do that!? We're trying to minimize harm where we can!"

The boy let out a disappointed sigh. "Wow, those two other mages must have been totally incompetent then…" And now, for the final, most important question. "So have any of you watched any anime?"

They all shook their heads while looking confused.

The boy let out an even more disappointed sigh. "Well if you'd watched any, you'd know that when the strong fight the strong, it doesn't just end easily. You have to fight them with all you have, with the intent to _beat them_ , until you knock them out or they just can't fight anymore, and then you can take them in. I guess you wouldn't think to do that since you're stronger, but if the mage is at least _competent_ they'll be able to fight back, with their fists, and as long as they have their soul energy flowing through them, they'll be able to take hits from you too."

And there it was. The problem was so simple. The way of fighting that he and his friends used when they sparred, the way powerful anime characters would fight. This criminal was fighting this way, and they had no idea how to deal with it. He realized at that moment that he would have to spar with these three to get them to start thinking a different way when they fight. Starting with actually fighting instead of finding a way to hold them down when they can still fight back.

"Alright, how long do I have to teach you all how to fight?" AJ asked them.

Samuel wanted to comment on that, but decided to just answer the question. "We have until pretty late tonight. For some reason, the criminal left a message on the internet saying when and where he would be next."

"Hmm. He either has some terrible plan, or wants to make a show out of this." The kind soul commented. "Well, in that case, I'll spend the rest of the day helping you three learn how to fight like a mage." He said with a grin as he got a bit excited at the idea of sparring. He sighed internally though as he realized Frisk was going to waiting for him for awhile. "Let's start with you." He said to the older man. "Stand over there and get ready to try and capture me."

"Understood." Samuel walked over to one side while the boy walked to the other.

"Now, make sure your soul energy is flowing through your whole body while we do this, or you're gonna get hurt." AJ said. "Now, try to catch me as you would a criminal with magic."

The man nodded before raising his arms to either side, creating ten teal vines before launching them at his opponent. The boy lifted his right hand slightly as it glowed green, and a large barrier appeared between them that blocked the vines, cracking the wall somewhat. Samuel was surprised by his speed with his magic, but he quickly recovered and attempted to move the ropes around the barrier to trap the boy. Two more barriers appeared on either side to block them as they lunged, and AJ dropped the first barrier so he could quickly rush toward the older gentleman.

The man recognized his opponent was approaching and raised his fists in preparation. Just as the green soul was almost within range, he jumped and aimed a kick at the old man's head. Samuel ducked to avoid it, and AJ landed feet-first on the barrier behind him. The boy quickly spun and pushed off the barrier, landing a punch on the man's back before he was able to turn around.

"Oof!" Samuel exclaimed as he hit the ground.

After that quick display of bright, glowing magics, they had pretty much everyone's attention.

"If you're going to fight the way a mage fights, you have to read your opponent's moves, and be more nimble. You gotta be light on your feet and ready to move on a moment's notice." The teen explained to the gentleman. "…You need healing?" He asked almost immediately afterwards, slightly worried.

The old man let out a minor groan as he stood up and turned to him. "No, I'm good. My magic keeps me feeling like I did in my youth." He said with a chuckle. "Still, a part of me was kind of expecting you to pull your punches a bit."

"Sorry." AJ said honestly. "But I always take fights seriously." He turned to the two other mage officers and pointed at the woman. "You're next. Stand in the same place, and then try to attack me." He walked to where he was before while Rebecca went to where Samuel was just standing. "Ready?"

She got in a fighting stance and nodded.

"Let's go, then." The boy taunted, giving her the first move.

She allowed herself a smirk as she tried to surprise him by rushing straight towards him using the enhanced speed from her trait. His response was nearly instant, pushing off in a powerful jump that sent him straight towards her with his fist cocked back behind him. As fast as she'd crossed half the distance by running, he crossed a third with a jump, and her eyes widened in surprise. She had only a moment to react, and she quickly turned her run into a slide right under him. He tried to swing downwards as she passed, but he missed.

He slid just a bit as he landed and quickly spun to face her. They definitely had everyone's attention now. "Didn't know anyone else could go as fast as you, right?" AJ guessed with a smile. "The reason every mage is faster than a normal person is strength. You can push off the ground harder, so you can run faster, jump higher, and jump farther. If you're smart with it, that translates into speed and mobility." As soon as he said that, he started running, taking only a few steps before it turned into a leap towards his opponent.

Rebecca responded by running to meet him, leaving a purple trail as she crossed with incredible speed. He landed only a few feet in front of her at the middle, but he landed with only his left foot, and his body was already leaning to his right. He pushed off and was out of her way just as she slowed down to throw a punch. She turned to her left with a shocked expression as she watched him land in a similar way and push off with right foot as he went forwards, then made another ninety degree turn to his left. Samuel's eyes widened in realization as he noticed how familiar that way of moving was to the criminal's. His feet appeared to barely leave the ground. In just a second he had done a complete one eighty and jumped at the officer and swung at her.

She managed to jump back just in time to avoid the punch, but he didn't let up and jumped towards her again as soon as his foot had the chance to hit the ground. She was able to land first and jumped to her side, but it was a panicked move and her balance was off. He was able to reach her before she could change direction again, but she focused quickly and was able to divert his punch, forcing him to swing with his other fist, which connected with her cheek, but with much less force than the other punch would have. He landed on all fours as she landed roughly on her side and tumbled onto her stomach.

"That, was AWESOME!" The boy exclaimed. "If the others adapt as fast as you, you'll all be pros at this in no time!" He held out his hand and helped her up.

"Thanks…" Rebecca responded as she pressed two fingers against her cheek.

"Yeah… do you want that healed?" AJ asked apologetically, his kind soul kicking in as soon as he wasn't fighting anymore.

"Don't worry, we can take a few hits." The woman said with a smile. "Now teach William something too, so we can get to the real training!"

"I think I get the idea." The man said confidently as he stepped towards them.

The boy raised his hand in a "stop" motion as that same hand glowed green and created a barrier between him and the officer. "Actually, no, we really shouldn't waste any more time getting to the real training. All I have to say for you, justice, is that you better focus on this melee training. Don't go thinking you can take it easy cause you have your trait. I know from…" He thought back to the stone giant towering over them. "…experience, that determination will block any soul magic used against them. It'll create a shield to block the shot, and it'll destroy any binds you try to use against him."

He turned towards Rebecca. "Honestly, your ability to turn damage into strength is the only thing that might work, but I only say that cause we haven't seen that move used on a red soul, so be careful with that." He went back to addressing all of them. "The only time your magic might work on him is when he isn't paying attention, and he'll respond to traps pretty immediately, while those lasers make a pretty distinct noise, which would give him time to react. It will depend on the mage you're fighting, but for one with a red soul, you'll have to fight hand-to-hand almost entirely to stop him. So, no more stopping mid fight all the time. Let's ingrain this into your minds, so you can stop future magic criminals like you're supposed to."

* * *

They spent many hours, nearly the rest of the day, getting used to this way of fighting. From the movement to the style of attack, they spent hours just sparring against each other. It was easy to fight one on one with the boy at first, but he could hardly keep that up forever, so while he took breaks or healed their bruises, they sparred with each other. AJ was amazed and impressed by their ability to adapt. They wouldn't be experts in one day, but they were at the very least competent. When it had long been dark and there were about two hours until the police would attempt to capture the determined mage, the three officers told the human Dreemurr that they understood the concept of the mage way of fighting well, and they could keep practicing against each other while he went home. He did believe that they could improve themselves without him, but…

"Actually, I think I'll find some place to properly rest before we head out." The boy responded.

"What?" William asked, confused.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Rebecca asked curiously.

The kind soul held his breath for a moment. "I've decided I'm going to help you three with this."

"What!?" Samuel asked, shocked.

"Whoa! Hey, I get that you're better at fighting this way, but there's no need for a civilian to put themselves at risk. This is our job, not yours." The woman pointed out.

"Well, you see, I have this major problem with trusting people to do something for me, and I think you're better off enlisting my help in the coming fight anyway, which is why I'm going to try and take a nap, so wake me when it's time to go."

They attempted to dissuade him for a bit longer before going to their chief to insist that he not go on the mission with them. Unfortunately for them, he figured "The more mages, the better" and figured the boy was smart enough to understand the risks he was taking. "If he wants to join and help you, then let him."

* * *

 **Let me just remove any high hopes early. I am not making the fight against the criminal its own chapter because I want to, I'm doing it because it's been so long since I've last posted and I want you guys to know I'm not dead, or done, yet. I have plans still, but you can't just go to them immediately, you have to have side stories first, give the world chances to progress.**

 **That's not to say I won't try to make the fight something decent, but don't expect it to be astronomical in length, or some god-tier thing. I'm just posting it separately so I can post SOMETHING now.**

 **So, I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you have a good day.**

 **And considering my pace these days, I might as well say it now.**

 **Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.**

 **(Damn, feels like the Christmas chapter was just a few months ago… We've come far, I'll admit, but I wanted to have gone farther by now. You guys have no idea how truly sorry I am about that, really. Trying not to say that too much, but that's not easy for me. XD Life, am I right?)**


	39. Fight Like A Mage

**So, I'm officially taking classes now. Either the stress makes writing even less likely, or the reduced free time encourages me to write more when I do. The latter is pretty unlikely to be honest, but we'll just have to see.**

 **Anyway, time for part two of the event with the police mages!**

 **If you care to listen to the songs I suggest for the fights, you should find an extended version of the main fight them here. And once again, I would suggest a better one, or a more UT related one, if I could find one, but all I can really suggest is the song that gave me the passion to write most of this chapter.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.39

* * *

By now it was long into the night, and they were on the way to where the criminal said he would strike next. The flashing lights of the police cars did little to light the way though, as fog from the ocean was currently rolling through this part of town. The site they were heading towards was in a quiet corner of the residential part of town, where there was a small convenience store. Samuel explained to AJ that the man had robbed two similar stores around town already.

The boy let out an annoyed sigh. "Gifted with power, and what does he use it for? Petty robbery?" He commented.

"There's always gonna be someone." Rebecca commented.

"Yeah, I knew." AJ responded. "But as long as the number of selfish people is outweighed by the people who know how to use their power to stop them, everyone will be safer."

"Well yeah, but things will get kinda hectic if everyone learns to fight like you do." William pointed out.

"Well that's what you guys are for. If you're the best at what you do, you can stop people fighting like that. Besides, even Determination is nothing against a gun. It only stops magical attacks, not physical ones." The teen said.

"We're hoping it doesn't come to that." The oldest of the four commented.

When the small convoy of three cars arrived, there was already a decent sized crowd gathered in front of the building. The message the criminal left was a public one after all. The crowd was cleared and pushed back to either end of the road with two officers at each end to keep them there. No matter how many times they were told to leave, eighty percent of the original crowd never would.

AJ and the seven remaining officers stood in the street in front of the building, with one clearly in front of the door to give the fearful shop owner some sense of immediate security. Thankfully the fog wasn't so thick that they couldn't see each other, but it was close. The three mage officers insisted AJ stay in the middle of the group so he would be as safe as possible. He was annoyed at being treated like just another civilian, but it wasn't like he could tell them about all the fights he had with monsters in the underground, so he didn't fight them about it. He also wasn't complaining about the bullet-proof vest, since that was a good idea. The four 'normal' officers were in the back, with the three vets of the mage division up in front.

"Four mages for one guy?" One of the young officers spoke up after they'd been standing around for a few minutes.

"The guy told us all when and where he'd be." A slightly older woman responded. "We're being careful in case this is some trap and he brought friends."

"He's also just plain dangerous, so be careful." The kind soul commented.

The young man behind him chuckled. "Yeah, we figured out that much from Sarge's horror stories."

"You should treat them as they are, young one." Samuel spoke over his shoulder. "Cautionary tales, for the ones without magic, like yourself."

"He's not a ninja." The young officer responded. "He can't just take us all out without a fight, there's too many of us."

"Underestimating your opponent… is never a good idea." AJ commented as he was scanning around.

He suddenly heard one of the policemen behind him shout, and he spun around as quick as he could, already calling upon his soul energy. The first thing he saw was the man to his left hitting the ground, and the woman on his right falling over as some brown-haired blur flew towards him with a fist cocked back. The green soul started to step back while quickly swinging a punch upwards in hopes to deter the coming attack, but his opponent sidestepped it and connected a strong punch with the Dreemurr's chest that sent him tumbling toward the other mages.

"Whoa!" Rebecca exclaimed in surprise.

"Crap!" William shouted at the same time.

"It's him!" Samuel shouted before starting to build up energy in his right hand. The other mage officers started running towards the criminal as the other two policemen in the back reached for their pistols.

AJ managed to end his tumbling on his feet, but as he stood up straight and raised his arms up to fight, he saw his opponent had already closed the distance and was preparing to dropkick him. He only had enough time to guard with his arms before the kick sent him past his fellow mages and down an alley next to the shop.

"Freeze!" One of the two rear officers ordered as they pointed their weapons at the attacker. The older officer shot out ropes of teal magic, but they were disintegrated by a field of red energy the criminal created in front of him before leaping into the air in the direction of the kind soul. Their eyes widened as they worried he was going after the boy.

"AJ!" Rebecca shouted as she ran down the alley and through the fog.

The young mage had found himself at the entrance to a fairly sized courtyard behind the store. It was empty aside from a few poorly made piles of old wooden crates that had clearly not been used in awhile. The place seemed to have been a shared storage area for all the now-abandoned buildings that surrounded the rest of the open space.

The boy heard someone jump off one of the roofs behind him, and he spun around and looked up into the fog as he saw a figure descending on him. He saw a chance to counter and prepared to jump up to meet his opponent, but a purple blur came rushing through the alley and tackled him into the courtyard just before the criminal landed. Rebecca and AJ quickly stood up and turned to face their opponent.

The man looked to be no older than twenty with a thin build, short brown hair, green eyes, and a simple black long sleeve shirt. "Huh. So it is you." He commented with a smile.

And suddenly the boy was faced with the person that was the focus on his recent thoughts. Suddenly he was staring right at the person doing all the things that he was just recently irritated from thinking about. He grit his teeth and glared at the criminal. "How selfish are you!?" He shouted.

Rebecca quickly went for the pistol on her hip, and the thief jumped high upwards and backwards before she could fire at him. She quickly rushed through the alley and back towards the street with her magic, passing Samuel and William just as they ran into the courtyard. Their looks of shock and confusion were only there for a moment before they heard more gunfire and what sounded like more people getting attacked by a mage. Before they could even run back in, they heard someone land on the roof to their right, stomp across it, and quickly hop off of it.

The criminal fell back into the arena mere moments before the female officer came flying in, leaving a trail of soul energy behind her. "Damn it!" She shouted angrily as she fell towards him.

He sidestepped her attempt to land on him before jumping away as she quickly turned and threw a wide punch at him. He turned and aimed for the older officer, who quickly jumped towards their opponent, surprising him for a moment. He quickly recovered and ducked under Samuel's straight punch before delivering a solid punch to the teal soul's stomach, followed by another to the chin. He heard the persevering mage rush in from behind him, and he quickly spun around to see the punch coming for him before stepping to the side and preparing a counter strike.

Rebecca was quick to plant her foot on the ground to pivot and push off after her opponent to attack first. He spun as he sidestepped the punch and grabbed her by the arm and threw her over him with a hip toss. AJ was just in range when he saw he was about to get smashed by his teammate, and quickly sidestepped her to avoid them both being hurt. As the boy attempted a quick jab at the thief, the man heard William whip about his gun behind him, and jumped far to the side to avoid the green soul's attack. He quickly spun and pushed off the ground to further get to the side of the just mage and keep from being an easy target. He then crouched down low and jumped to the officer's close left side. As quick as William was to track his target, he wasn't fast enough and the criminal was able to deal a fast spinning kick to the man's hand, knocking the gun into the nearby wall with such force that it broke into pieces.

"Damn!" The policeman exclaimed in surprise before trying to swing his right hand back with the intent to backhand his enemy. The criminal caught him by the arm while raising his free hand into the air. He quickly brought his fist down as a hammer, but it collided with a small green barrier instead of William's arm. He smirked up at the boy charging at him before spinning the officer and throwing him at the boy. AJ ducked under his comrade while William managed to land on his feet. The criminal then pulled out a pistol from behind him and pointed it at his neck. Everyone froze in shock.

"Wait!" AJ said before he even thought of speaking.

The thief chuckled. "Yep, that kind soul of yours doesn't want anyone to die, right?" He asked rhetorically. "Old man should keep better track of his gun, by the way."

Samuel looked down in shock and realized he didn't have his gun on him.

The green soul grit his teeth. "No, but I sure want to beat you senseless! Why are you doing this!?" He shouted. "Do you not care at all that what you do affects every other mage out there!? Are you really just that selfish!?"

"That's right, AJ. I am!" He answered, smiling as he did. "Name's Nathan, by the way, since I know yours, it's only fair. As for why, do you mean the stealing, or bringing the police here?"

The teen was really confused and irritated he was actually asking that. "How about _both_!?"

"Ah, well the stealing is because I need it, obviously, I mean who doesn't these days?" Nathan answered.

"Yeah, and yet everyone else doesn't resort to stealing! They actually get a job and find some normal ways to make money!" AJ responded angrily.

The thief's face suddenly contorted in anger as his eyes widened and he pointed his gun at the teen, who responded immediately with a barrier between them. "NO YOU DON'T GET TO TALK LIKE THAT! YOU JUST HAD THOSE MONSTERS COME IN AND GIVE YOU ALL YOU'LL EVER NEED! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GET UP AND DO ANYTHING!" He shouted angrily.

"I SAVED AN ENTIRE RACE!" The teen Dreemurr countered.

"Oh and I guess that means you just get to live a life of fun and luxury, now!?" Nathan asked.

"ARE YOU KIDDING!? I still suffer every day because of selfish bastards like you!" AJ shouted furiously.

"AJ, you need to relax." Samuel requested calmly.

"NO!" The boy responded immediately before focusing on the man in front of them. "I need to beat this idiot for giving all the mage haters another reason to be prejudiced against us."

"And you told the police where you'd be to send a message or something, right?" William asked.

"Oh yeah! Plenty of messages!" Nathan answered with a devious grin as he started listing things off. "You cops can't do your jobs, the mage ones are even worse… but mostly I just wanted to prove to everyone, that I am the greatest mage out there and none of you can stop me! The police here are obviously total amateurs, but you know what? I like the look in your eyes, kid! So COME AT ME!" He demanded as he tossed the gun behind him and into the street. "FIGHT LIKE A MAGE!" He shouted as he jumped straight at them.

(Trinity - My Hero Academia 2 OST)

"Get back!" The oldest officer ordered as he wrapped magical vines around the boy and threw him behind them. The determined mage used his magic to break through the barrier, and the three officers were quick to respond. But he ducked under William's kick before dodging to the side of Rebecca's punch and jumping towards AJ.

The teen saw his opponent's rapid approach and dodged to the side at the last second. He quickly threw a jab at Nathan's head, but he ducked under it before turning towards him and aiming an uppercut at AJ's chin. The boy sidestepped that and delivered an uppercut of his own into the man's side before quickly following up with a punch to the back of his head. The criminal stumbled forwards before quickly sending a spinning heel kick at his opponent's head. The kind soul blocked it, but he was quick to switch that foot to the ground and kick straight forward with his left. AJ barely blocked it and stumbled back. Nathan was quick to deliver a solid punch to the boy's chest and knock him down, and then he saw purple light to his right.

The female officer rushed up to the thief and threw a hard right punch. He just managed to sidestep her, but she immediately pushed off at him again with her other fist. He caught and diverted her arm so it was bent behind her back, and he used his free hand to grab her gun. She quickly brought her other arm forward and then slammed her elbow into his right side, giving her the chance to free her arm. She immediately made use of it, swinging her left fist all the way around in a punch aimed for his face. Her hand glowed purple with all the pain she'd taken up to this point as it connected and made the criminal do a backflip before hitting the wall behind him. He lost his grip on the gun mid-flight and it bounced off the brick wall. Nathan shook his head clear of his daze and looked up just in time to see Rebecca jump at him. He quickly moved to his right before her foot connected with the wall, before jumping past her.

William fired a few yellow bolts at the man, but a field of red magic blocked them all as he hopped towards them. The just mage jumped to meet him, and their fists collided before they landed. The policeman quickly attacked with a side kick from his left leg, and Nathan pushed it away before throwing a left jab. William diverted the attack upwards before throwing his own left hook. The thief leaned back to dodge before swinging with his right. The attack was interrupted by Samuel's fist connecting with his left cheek. He stumbled away before spinning towards them as they both swung at him.

He raised his left leg up to hit the older gentlemen's wrist as he swung, while throwing his right arm out to divert the yellow soul's right arm. He quickly switched to standing on his left leg as he kicked William in the gut, causing him to lean forward and stop his follow-up punch, while catching Samuel's second punch with his left hand. He pushed the teal soul back before turning to the younger officer to swing his fist at his head. He grit his teeth as his fist met a barrier and he turned and saw the others bearing down on him. The two other officers were right in front, while the teenager had jumped above them to be the aerial attacker. He quickly jumped over the two adults and surprised AJ in doing so, giving him the opening to kick the kind mage in the chest and send him backwards.

The boy landed roughly on his back, and he took a moment to get up as he saw the determined thief break away from the three officers to avoid their combined attacks. He began jumping around them, rapidly moving around the courtyard and looking for an opening. "Enough of this…" AJ said angrily as he reached behind his back.

Rebecca grew annoyed and chased after him like they'd practiced. Nathan simply laughed at her attempt to keep up with him, and prepared to stop at his next jump and turn to let her run into his fist. But at her last jump, she used her speed boosting magic, and speed boost, plus jump, equals fast. The criminal's eyes widened as she suddenly crossed the gap between them faster than even he could, and her fist connected with his cheek at full force and sent him tumbling back. He got up to his hands and knees and spit out blood before glaring daggers at her, totally losing the grin he had mostly held up to this point. He saw her rush up to him again, and he quickly dove to her left as he saw an item of interest.

Her constant use of her higher speeds to close the distance on him or quickly assist her allies was infuriating. She was already clearly the biggest nuisance of the group. His façade was breaking, he didn't care anymore.

Two hops and he had reached the gun that was left on the floor. He quickly spun around with a furious look aimed right at the female officer, along with the pistol. He squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

*BANG!*

Nathan's eyes widened as a green blade that glowed brightly in the night deflected the gun upwards and out of his hand. AJ quickly followed up that vertical slash with a horizontal one that the red soul avoided by jumped into the air and landing on the flat roof above them.

"Well! That looks familiar." The thief commented.

The teen jumped straight at him and lunged with his weapon, but Nathan jumped backwards to avoid him.

"I wonder where I've seen that before… oh right!" The thief continued sarcastically before reaching behind him and activating his own magical blade.

AJ's eyes widened in shock before glaring in anger. "Where did you get that?"

"Stole it, obviously." Nathan answered. "It's her fault for leaving them there for the taking. I mean, all she does is lock the door when they go out!" He said as if he'd just made a funny joke.

"It's like you're _trying_ to piss me off." The teen noted.

"Heeeey, now he gets it!" The thief commented. "You've made it plenty obvious you're one of those people with 'morals'," He actually added air quotes. "so it's easy to get you all riled up."

"You were given a power and you were supposed to be responsible but you didn't even try!" The green soul quickly shouted angrily. All the things he sees on the internet and in the news of the world that frustrate him to no end were filling him with almost unending anger. All the innocent people that are hurt because of the selfishness of others, all the greedy corporations that try to get money however they can, no matter who pays for it. It wasn't that what this thief had done was the worst he'd seen, this guy just beat up some cashiers with his magical strength. But it was the fact that one of those kinds of people that didn't care about others and only themselves was right in front of him. If he couldn't beat up all the horrible people in the world, he would just take all his frustration and anger out on this one. "You just abused it for selfish gains and made other people suffer like all those other stupid, greedy, selfish, f***ing BASTARDS!" He yelled furiously as he jumped at his opponent with his sword raised high.

Nathan held his red blade in front of him and blocked the heavy attack, creating magical sparks that shot out in all directions. The young man raised his weapon above him again, his expression full of rage. The determined mage quickly jumped to his right to avoid the swing. "Man! You moral types are always like this!" He pointed out as his opponent quickly turned and jumped at him again. He swung his sword to deflect three consecutive swings from AJ as the boy kept advancing on him. "You get so mad at the idea that people think for themselves!"

Rebecca jumped onto the rooftop just in time to see them both dash further away with such force that they kicked up dust. "Damn!" She exclaimed before going to catch up.

"Everyone is selfish, you idiot! All people ever do is think for themselves and act in their own self-interests! Why do you have to make a problem out of it!?" The red soul asked as their blades continued to clash and the kind mage continued to pursue him.

"Just shut up!" AJ demanded, hoping that if he just swung hard enough he would break through the man's guard.

Nathan chuckled. "Heh, right." He diverted the swing downwards and punched the boy hard in the gut. "It's pointless to try and explain that to you, isn't it?" He asked rhetorically as he stared down at him. The red mage pulled his blade behind him.

Just then, the purple soul caught up with them and jumped at the thief. He swung his magical sword wide towards her, and her eyes widened as she realized he had always intended to swing for her. The human Dreemurr forced his head up and shoved his blade straight up, blocking the thief's blade from hitting her. She had to raise her left arm high and spin in the air to avoid the two blades, but she was able to land behind their opponent. She spun around and threw a left hook at the back of his head, but he ducked under it as he turned his left side towards her and drove his shoulder into her ribs. She forced herself to keep going and raised her right arm high as her fist began glowing. He quickly jumped towards the courtyard to avoid her fist as it slammed into the roof and left a dent in it.

As soon as Nathan landed he pushed off straight towards the just mage. William's eyes widened as a sword was swung at his head. He barely ducked under it before jumping to his right to avoid a second horizontal swing. The red soul was quick to rush at him again, and the officer realized he wasn't fast enough to get away from him. He did the only thing he thought would work as the magic sword was about to slice him in half. He quickly shot a yellow bolt into the blade, and while the thief was strong enough to keep his grip, his arm was still thrown behind him by the force of the shot.

Rebecca and AJ landed, and the former quickly rushed at the criminal with her arm pulled back behind her. Nathan ducked under her to avoid the attack, but a green wall had already been created to his right, and she pushed off it and slammed her shoulder into him, knocking him into the wall again. He looked up and managed to make out the purple soul jumping at him through his blurred vision.

"WAIT!" AJ warned.

The determined mage grinned as his vision cleared and he raised his sword. The glowed red blade pierced through her left side as she ran right into it. Everyone's eyes widened in silent shock and disbelief.

"You know, I wasn't going to kill any of you." Nathan commented to her, before his grin was replaced by a look of annoyance. "But you were more trouble than it was worth letting you live."

"No…" Samuel managed to say.

The female officer coughed a bit. "You think… this hurts?" She asked, before slowly pulling her head up. She grinned like a madwoman as blood leaked from between her lips, and the criminal's eyes widened in terror as the left fist she'd pulled back behind her was glowing so intensely that purple flame was coming out of it. " _This is gonna be worse._ "

Nathan panicked for an instant as he felt the power coming from her hand, and he realized he didn't have the elbow room to pull the sword out of her and move. He managed to remember the button on the hilt and pressed it before diving to his left as she swung. The power behind Rebecca's fist created an explosion of dust and debris as it blew open a wide hole in the brick wall. She collapsed a moment afterwards.

The red soul quickly reactivated his blade and turned towards his opponents, only to see the one with the green blade come charging at him with a furious expression. He blocked three fast diagonal strikes before jumping away from a stab that would have gotten through his guard. The boy saw him land on the angled metal roof ahead of him and went to follow him.

"Wait!..." Rebecca managed to say, and the boy immediately stopped and looked back at her worriedly.

He knew he needed to heal her, but he still let out a growl of annoyance that he couldn't keep fighting right now. "WILLIAM!" With a strong throw, he tossed the metal hilt to the yellow soul. The green blade vanished from it half way through its flight. "Put your soul energy into it!" He said before getting down next the persevering mage to heal her.

"Huh?" He couldn't help but make a confused noise as he stared at the metal hilt and tried to actually put his soul energy into it. A blade of yellow magic suddenly sprouted out of it. "Huh." He commented before running to, and jumping onto, the roof that the thief was on.

"You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay-" AJ kept repeating aloud as he used as much energy as he could to power his healing magic into both his hands.

"Well of course I am…" Rebecca managed to say, smiling weakly. "Some doctor… who was a brand new mage, healed a guy's broken arm… I'm sure you'll fix me up in no time."

Her calmness and the realization of his own progress calmed him somewhat. "Yeah, well, it helps that I'm giving it my all." He commented as his hands continued to give off a bright green mist.

Samuel wasn't sure what to do as he watched the two mages clash blades. Clearly neither of them were trained to fight with swords, but Nathan was definitely fast, in movement and maneuvering. As they dashed all around the rooftop, neither of them had managed to land a hit with their weapons yet. 'How do I assist without getting too close to their blades?' The older gentleman thought to himself. He looked down at the pile of old wooden crates in front of him. "Hmmm..." He hummed.

The red soul blocked a diagonal swing to his left, then right side, before kicking William back and countering with a vertical strike. He noticed mid-swing something in the edge of his vision, and changed the course of his swing to his left. His magic blade broke through a rotted wooden crate, causing old dust to fly out and broken old planks to fall past them. The just mage took quick advantage of this and struck at his opponent's sword arm. Nathan saw it coming at the last second and pulled his arm away, but the blade was still able to cut his forearm.

"Agh!" He cried out in pain before glaring at the mage in front of him as he grit his teeth. He held his blade in front of him to block two more swings as the officer began advancing on him. He saw another box get sent flying towards him by the teal ropes Samuel created, and he had to step back to avoid another lunge while using his own sword to break the crate. He felt the pressure of the two mage officers continue to push against him as he spent a few moments entirely on the defensive, trying to deal with sword swipes and boxes at the same time.

"Come on!" He complained as his free hand glowed red and he tried to grab William's sword in hopes of dissolving it. The officer pulled his weapon out of his reach before swinging it horizontally while he saw an opening. The criminal quickly responded by swinging his own sword at him so their blades would just collide. An extra layer of red appeared over Nathan's sword before they collided, and when they did, the determined mage's blade passed through the yellow blade. The link between the device and the magic was cut and the officer was now holding nothing but an empty metal hilt. "Oh!" The thief swung diagonally and cut deep into the man's shoulder. "Would you look at that!" He exclaimed with a smile. As the just soul cried out in pain and fell over, the red mage went to stab him.

AJ's heart leapt at the sight, his body filled with adrenaline and terror. Magical energy flooded his hand. He wanted to put a barrier between William and Nathan, he wanted to keep him from further harm. But he wasn't actually thinking about the space between the two of them, his mind was entirely focused on the officer. He wanted to protect _him._ As far as his magic was concerned, he seemed to want to put a barrier _on_ the man.

So he did.

A green bubble of magical energy appeared around the just mage and blocked the red blade. "What the-!" Nathan exclaimed before focusing on putting energy around his blade before performing an overhead swing to pop the bubble. As his blade contacted the bubble, it turned red for an instant before bursting and sending the criminal flying back into the courtyard. "Gah!"

The yellow soul slowly stood up, clutching his shoulder as he stared in confusion at their opponent. He turned that look to the boy healing his comrade. "What the hell was that!?" He asked.

"I don't know!" AJ responded before looking back at his patient. "Can you wait a moment? He's bleeding more than you right now."

"No time!" William answered for her as he hopped down from the roof. He let out a pained groan as he landed, but forced himself to get moving towards Nathan, who had just started engaging Samuel.

The old man grabbed two crates behind him, the last of that pile, and tried to smash them together into the thief in front of him. The man jumped forwards as his blade glowed red, cutting through his vines and causing the boxes to crash just behind him. He lunged forward and swung the blade horizontally at the patient soul's throat, who ducked under it before jumping back to avoid a downward slash.

"Damn it…" The kind soul said to himself as the wounded man rushed at their enemy. The teen held his left hand close to him and focused on concentrating healing energy into the palm of it. Once he felt he had plenty, he threw the bright cluster of magic ahead of the officer. The magic connected with him, and mostly fixed the crack in his soul while fixing his shoulder enough to at least stop the bleeding.

An instant after the patient soul's feet hit the ground, the criminal jumped and moved to the man's left flank. He had his blade far out behind him and went for a wide swing.

"HYAAAH!" William let out a shout as he jumped in from behind Samuel and swung his blade downward from over the man's left shoulder. The red soul's eyes widened as the teal soul jumped to his right and let their two blades collide. The officer's blade scrapped along the thief's blade inside his guard before striking horizontally at the man's head. He ducked under it as they stepped past each other before turning to face each other again. Nathan performed two quick lunges that were barely dodged before swinging horizontally for the neck. The yellow soul leaned back to avoid it and stepped away as Samuel leapt over him and swung his fist straight for the man's face.

The determined mage punched him in the chest and threw him over and behind him. He turned and saw a diagonal swing coming down on him, and he quickly sidestepped it. His opponent aimed a stab for his face, and he titled his head quickly to avoid it. Another one followed, and he raised his sword to block it before kicking upwards to make his enemy back up. Nathan counterattacked with a jab aimed at his opponent's left side, but the officer sidestepped it and the blade passed under his arm. William quickly raised his left arm up high to avoid the blade as it was quickly swung upwards. He then spun and swung his sword out in front of him to keep his enemy at bay.

The criminal turned to his right and saw Samuel throw another crate at him. He quickly jumped to the side and dodged it before jumping straight at the old man. The teal soul got in a defensive stance and quickly ducked under two swings aimed at his head. He tried to quickly create ten vines at point blank range to attack the younger man, but the thief was able to put his hands in front of him just in time to create a veil of red magic that dissolved them. He smirked as he landed a hard kick to the chest on the older officer that knocked him into the wall behind him. Samuel looked up at his enemy as he approached him, and quietly growled in annoyance. He opened his right hand so his fingers pressed against the wall behind him, and created his teal ropes with such force that they broke through the wall. He swung his arm out towards his enemy, and the vines broke out of the wall and scattered a cloud of dust and debris at the thief.

"AAH!" The shopowner cried out in fear as he and his hiding spot in the back room of his store were now revealed to the world.

Nathan's eyes widened before he tried to shield his face from the broken stone that was hitting him. He ended up running into Samuel's fist and getting knocked onto his back. He took a moment to recover before seeing the older gentleman was about to punch him again, so he quickly struck outwards with his sword to make the man back off. He heard William come in from behind and kicked backwards, striking him right in the gut and making him nearly keel over. He quickly brought the hilt of his weapon down on the back of younger officer's head before noticing the patient soul jump at him. He quickly jumped back from the man's fist.

"I need to help them!" AJ said to himself as he watched.

"You're right…" Rebecca agreed. "We do."

He looked down at her and she smiled back. "No, it's too early. You'll reopen the wound!" He pointed out worriedly.

"William!" Samuel spoke. The just soul looked up as he got up to his hands and knees, and he saw the older mage holding his open hand out to him. "Your weapon!"

"What, really!?" The yellow soul complained, not wanting his weapon taken away.

"I won't let you!" Nathan shouted as he jumped and lunged at the old man.

The patient mage jumped back and allowed himself a smirk. He created teal ropes from his right hand and used them to grab the metal hilt and quickly pull it to him. He pressed the button as he gripped it and lunged forward with a bright teal blade while they were both still off the ground. The thief tilted his head to the side at the last possible second, and the blade cut off a few hairs. As soon as they both had their boots on the ground, the officer attacked with a downward strike. Nathan raised his weapon and blocked it, but Samuel started advancing on him.

The man quickly swung diagonally from his left, then his right, but the thief was able to block the attacks. The red soul tried to counter with an upward diagonal strike, but the officer diverted his blade before stabbing at his chest. The criminal stepped back to dodge it, before the man attempted a strong downward swing despite being out of range. The patient soul smirked and let go of the hilt at the last moment, and the blade flipped towards the shocked man. He ducked forward to avoid the blade, but it still nicked his left shoulder slightly before it faded away.

"Stupid old man!" Nathan commented with a wild look in his eyes as he raised his sword high.

Then he heard the distinct noise of the hilt being caught behind him.

He looked over his shoulder and saw a bright green blade being swung low. He tried to pull away, but was too late and got a shallow gash in his right side.

"Gah! Damn you!" He shouted furiously as the green soul quickly swung again. He quickly jumped far away towards the center of the courtyard, but the boy kept after him. Starting to feel the effects of his wounds, the thief was constantly on the defense as the two sword wielders bounced around the courtyard and clashes blades. The teen refused to let up the momentum he had.

"Why are you mad at me for making those other people scared of mages, huh!?" Nathan asked. Shouldn't you get mad at _them_ for being so stupid as to hate mages because of what one of them does!?" He asked before diverting another jab that almost connected with his face.

"You knew how they'd react!" AJ responded. "You're not blameless if you do something you know will cause harm!" He shouted as he performed another strong downward swing.

"Enough of this!" The determined thief shouted, annoyed, before landing from another jump and pushing forward instead of jumping again. He was able to catch the boy off guard with the sudden counter and lunged at his chest.

Rebecca pushed off the ground a short distance away from them and landed a powerful low hook in his right side that sent him tumbling away. He stopped just before the wall she'd broken earlier and grasped at his side in pain as he stood up. "DAMN IIIIT!" He shouted furiously before rushing off into another alley that led to a led to a long alley full of small metal storage buildings.

The purple and green souls went to run after him, but they both stopped when the woman suddenly stalled and clutched her side.

"Oh, yep… that did it…" She commented weakly.

He was able to make out amidst the blood stains that her wounds had opened up again. "You idiot!" He scolded. "Wait here!" He ordered before running after the criminal.

"No, I'll… be there in just a second." Rebecca insisted as her dizziness grew worse.

"You've lost too much blood." Samuel said, quickly moving to her side. "Do as he says, Rebecca."

"No." She responded strongly. "I'm not done yet…"

AJ turned the corner of the alley with his weapon raised for an ambush. He was met with silence, distant fog, and darkness. The entire alley was full of abandoned storage buildings with their doors all wide open, showing the darkness inside them. He walked forwards slowly, very slowly. The only sound was that of his boots touching the concrete for the longest time. Inside he was terrified, he rapidly glanced at every dark room, waiting for the thief to jump out at him. But after making it half way through the alley and not seeing any sign of him, he had an idea.

With his free hand he reached up to his soul and held it close. He focused on his breathing, on being as quiet and still as possible, on his senses and heightening them to find who he was after. On his soul and the feeling of it, to calm himself and allow him to focus on this idea he had, this theory.

All was silent.

Everything.

It was as if the world stood still.

Nathan silently jumped out at him from behind, and swung his blade horizontally to cut him in two. Rebecca came around the corner just in time to see it. It was too late for her to scream a warning to him.

But the boy suddenly spun around counter-clockwise and blocked the sword with his own, leaving the man wide open. He swung his weapon to his right and slashed it across the entirety of the man's chest.

"AAAAGGGHH!" The determined mage cried out in pain as he fell past the teen and roughly fell to his knees. "No… no, no no! Damn it! You bastard!"

Nothing was going the way he wanted, the way he planned. He was losing patience, and control, and he knew it.

He turned to the green soul as he clutched his bleeding chest. "I wasn't lying, you know! I didn't want this! I didn't want to kill anyone! Because I had morals once! I had one rule! Never kill! And I was going to follow it!" His expression darkened as he stared at the floor. "But you're gonna forget about me… You're gonna stop me at this rate… and then you're all gonna forget about me… But I won't let you…" He suddenly stood up with the eyes of a furious madman. "I WON'T LET YOU FORGET ABOUT ME! I'LL KILL YOU IF I HAVE TO! I WILL NOT LET THIS WORLD FORGET I EVER EXISTEEEEED!"

AJ raised his weapon in preparation as the man ran at him. He saw the approaching swing from his left side and started to counter with his own wide swing. His eyes widened as the force of Nathan's swing sent the hilt flying out of his hand. "Holy sh-" The red soul jumped on him and pushed him to the ground with his red blade hanging over them. Before he could be stabbed, the female officer came rushing in and her knee connected with the thief's face and knocked him off the boy. He lost his grip on the magical weapon as he tumbled, but he was quick to get back up and jump at her. His sudden tackle caused them both to tumble down the alley, and they ended up with Nathan on top. He pulled his arm back to punch her, but Rebecca grabbed him by the collar and clashed her forehead with his nose.

The red soul reared back and clutched his face until AJ ran up and kicked him in the side, knocking him off her and sending him tumbling further down the hall. He quickly followed up his attack by swinging at the man as soon as he was up, but the criminal caught him by the arm and pulled him around before slamming his face against the stone wall. A purple blur ran up and swung her fist straight at his head, but he ducked under it before uppercutting her in the chin. He quickly followed up with a straight forward kick that knocked her down. The teen turned and swung his right fist into his left side, but his follow up punch was caught, and Nathan socked him in the face before running back into the courtyard. The purple soul got up and quickly went after him.

William and Samuel saw him come out of the alley and ran to meet him. Before either of them could, Rebecca rushed in from behind. Her surprise attack was suddenly dodged when the man jumped into the air and grabbed her by the shoulder before kicking her in the side of the head and knocking her down. The furious male officers both swung at him, but he ducked under their attacks while hitting the teal soul in the gut. He quickly followed up with a swing at the just mage's face, but he caught it with his left hand. Nathan quickly struck low with his left, before continuing the attack with his right.

He was stopped when Samuel slugged him in the back, and he responded with a backwards kick from his left leg. The older officer caught it while William got back up and swung at the thief's head. Nathan stumbled past them as he quickly recovered from the blow and turned back to them. The yellow soul attacked first with a left hook, which the thief diverted downward with his right while uppercutting the officer in the chin with his left. He then threw his left hand out to his left and hit the patient soul in the face with the back of his knuckle. The red soul grabbed William by the hair on the back of his head and threw him at the older gentleman. Their skulls collided and they both fell to the ground, stunned.

The criminal saw something in the corner of his vision and looked to his left to see the pistol lying in the middle of the courtyard, near the largest pile of old crates. He quickly ran after it.

"No…" William said weakly before firing a yellow bolt from his finger. The distracted mage was hit in the back of his left shoulder and he cried out in pain before growling in frustration as he continued towards the gun. AJ made it back just as the teal and yellow souls were forcing themselves up to chase after Nathan. He was about to do the same when he saw the bloodied officer lying on the ground, looking incredibly dazed.

"Rebecca!?" He asked worriedly.

"…Ugh…" She groaned as she continued the slow process of standing up.

"Where are you hurt?" He asked quickly as he crouched down next to her, his hands already starting to give off healing magic.

"My head…" She answered, and he immediately placed his hands on her head. She smiled thankfully as her head started to clear up.

Nathan spun around with the gun held at arm's length, and William quickly kicked the gun up and out of his hands. The thief furiously punched him in the face, before diverting Samuel's swing and hitting him over the head. He then immediately turned around to go catch the gun that flew behind him.

He caught the gun as he landed on the tallest pile of boxes in the area. He grinned from on top of his high ground as he turned and pointed the pistol at the officer in the back as she was still standing. AJ reacted as fast he could and his outstretched hand glowed bright green.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

He froze in terror as a bullet ripped into her right shoulder, one deeply grazed her left side, and another went through her lower right side. "NO!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as a bubble of green energy appeared around her and protected her from more gunfire as she collapsed on her back. He created another barrier in front of them to protect them both as Samuel forced himself back up.

"Damn it." He said to himself as he rushed up the boxes to reach their enemy.

"Bastard!" William shouted in anger as he fired a magic bolt with the hope that the shot wouldn't be blocked.

(You Say Run – My Hero Academia OST)

AJ's breathing became erratic as he quickly got on his knees next to the officer and put as much magic as he could into healing her wounds. He had barely started before she suddenly grabbed him by the wrist.

"It's… alright…" She slowly pushed him away and he watched in shock as she slowly forced herself to stand up.

He suddenly felt something coming from her. "W-What!?" He asked, confused.

"Just… get behind me…" She ordered as she stood fully and got in a fighting position, her hands clenched into tight fists.

"No! You're hurt! You-"

And just an instant before it happened, he realized what he was feeling from her. Power. Sheer magical power.

" _I will persevere._ " Rebecca said with absolute certainly and determination.

It was like a valve in her soul opened up. An immense amount of soul energy exploded out from her in a stunning purple light show. The incredible power gushing out of her was like a constant rushing wind threatening to blow them all away. All the pain she'd felt in this fight came rushing back to her, and she knew just what to do with it.

Her entire body became aglow with a bright purple light as purple energy swirled around her. She tried to pull back her right arm, and she groaned in pain. AJ realized what he needed to do and focused until he had a mass of healing magic glowing in his hand. He threw it into the wound in her shoulder and healed it enough for her to move. She pulled the arm back and raised a thumbs up towards him, and when she glanced and smiled back at him, he froze as his eyes widened in awe.

The pupils in her eyes had been replaced with two purple hearts that had such an eye-catching glow to them that it was as if her body wasn't glowing at all. Yet the light didn't hurt his eyes, and he couldn't stop staring at them.

The woman turned serious as she faced the criminal ahead of them, and she raised her right leg forward before stomping the ground in front of her. Her foot created a large crater as the entirety of the courtyard ahead of them cracked and all the massive chunks of concrete exploded into the air as the wood crates shattered and the abandoned buildings were displaced from their foundations and threatened to fall apart.

The three men ahead of the officer were thrown into the air with everything else. Nathan quickly grabbed a broken plank next to him and threw it into Samuel's arm before turning his pistol towards the mage that continued to be his biggest threat. AJ saw him start to turn in their direction and was able to create a barrier in the middle of the air between the gun and the officer next to him. A sudden movement in front of him caused him to blink, and by the time his eyes were open, his barrier was shattered and Rebecca was suspended in the air right in front of Nathan.

Nathan's eyes widened in shock as she simply appeared in front of him after a simple jump, her right arm already pulled back behind her. The thief abandoned the gun and threw his open left hand in front of him as she swung as hard as she could. Her fist collided with a massive veil of red magic that tried to repel her attack. She refused to be blown away by his shield and kept pushing with all her might. He grit his teeth in anger as he fought just as hard to keep his magic up.

"Just give up! Determination beats all magic! You can't break through it no matter how strong you are! As long as I'm determined, you can't beat me!" Nathan shouted.

Through the field of red and the nearly blinding light coming from their magical energies colliding, he saw her show a confident grin. "Magic doesn't make you invincible! Not even yours!" She focused all her might into the entirety of her right arm. "Every wall can be broken!…" The red magic broke apart and she was able to finish her swing. Her fist connected with his chest, and a massive amount of purple energy was released as it did so. The powerful punch rendered the man nothing more than a blur that flew down towards the building behind him and cut through its brick wall like it was butter. "As long as you're willing to PERSEVERE!" Rebecca shouted at the top of her lungs, surprising herself with the passion in her voice.

(Music stops)

As the still glowing woman landed safely on the broken and uneven ground, she watched the wall finally react to the object that had just pierced it and start to collapse. Meanwhile the kind soul's mind finished processing what it had just watched, more or less. He quickly got up and started jumping across the courtyard. With what he knew about the durability of a mage's body, he knew he needed to heal Nathan, because he was definitely unconscious right now and his body won't be able to hold up without the strengthening of magic.

The purple soul stopped him as he ran by her. "Wait."

"I need to heal him, now!" AJ responded immediately. "Before he-"

With the combined damage of the human projectile that had just broken into it, and the damage from the massive force that had pushed it out of the ground and nearly split it in half, the old building broke apart and collapsed inwards, falling into the depression made by its shattered foundation.

"You and I both know he's already dead." Rebecca said with a serious frown.

The boy's eyes widened at this, though he knew it was true, he just hadn't wanted to believe it. He stared at the collapsed building as his mind kept going, as it always did. He knew it was true because it made sense. He had a rough understanding of what the human body can handle, and a not-quite-as-rough estimate of what the body could handle with magic strengthening it. The power she was just showing, the strength she had, should have allowed that single punch alone to kill him. That's ignoring the impact, and the building falling on him would practically seal the deal.

'My stupid kind soul doesn't want to accept it… That part of me doesn't want anyone to die… but… why should I care about him? He tried to kill us, tried to kill _me_ … and that's something _I_ can't accept. If I died… then Frisk would…' He refused to think any more of that. She wasn't allowed to be hurt. She wasn't allowed to cry. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let that happen, and he swore to her, too. He promised, after all. Hard to forget a promise you thought you'd never make.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Rebecca suddenly collapsed next to him. "Oh sh- Right!" He immediately crouched next to her and started healing her other bullet wounds and then every other wound she'd gotten during the fight.

* * *

Soon after the fight ended, more police cars, as well as ambulances and the rest of the usual first responders arrived after the scene, thanks to the calls sent by the civilians as the fight escalated and many of them were too afraid to get anywhere near. The various news stations that weren't already there amongst the crowds came swarming. The entire area in front of the small store was filled with people and vehicles, while the courtyard behind it was full of wide-eyed firefighters checking in case fuel lines had been broken, as well as news cameras that the police were having a hard time getting rid of.

It took longer than AJ would have liked to get the paramedics to leave him and the officers alone. He insisted repeatedly that he checked over every single one of them, and no one was better at healing than him, though he didn't hold it against them as they were just doing their job. The reporters questioned them immensely when they saw how everything had been destroyed, but they had since been pushed away so the four mages could be left alone in the back of a relatively quiet armored police vehicle.

"Damn. Everything is so noisy out there." William commented as he closed the back doors.

"We did leave quite a mess back there." Samuel commented, frowning seriously. He sat next to William, and they both sat across from the female officer and the teen.

"I really hope I'm not gonna have to pay for all that damage…" Rebecca said with a worried smile.

"Ah the buildings were abandoned and unused, you're probably fine." AJ responded.

"That shop guy's building wasn't, though." The woman responded. "I totally wrecked the back half of that thing…"

"I did some harm to the back wall as well, even if you destroyed the rest." Samuel admitted.

They were all silent for a few seconds.

"So… anyone wanna talk about what just happened?" William finally asked.

"Yeah..." The green soul agreed. "Cause that's the second time that's happened."

"What's happened?" The purple soul asked, confused.

"That!? You've seen _that_ before!?" William asked, hiking his thumb towards the door.

"No, I mean," He turned to Rebecca. "Your pupils, were completely replaced by glowing purple hearts."

She gained a surprised and confused look. "Really?"

"Yeah, and that had apparently happened to me when I stopped that guy at Sarah's shop." AJ explained. "Hell, some artist that was there when it happened even redrew what they saw. It's not something I can just do, though. Alphys has been trying to figure it out ever since." He trailed off for a moment as he realized this was their best chance to get an answer, or at least close to one. Alphys wasn't the only one curious about the event. "Can you remember what happened then? What caused you to do it? How it felt? Anything at all?" He asked her.

"Well…" She thought over it for only a few moments before her eyes widened slightly. "Actually, I do remember how I felt then! I knew _exactly_ what was happening for a moment during that! How?" She asked herself.

"No time, explain now!" AJ said quickly. He was afraid she would forget if she didn't say it soon.

"Alright, well… I noticed, when it started happening, that I was drawing out an _insane_ amount of soul energy, way more than I could possibly draw out if I had even an hour to just keep drawing on it… and honestly, I wasn't even totally doing it myself. It seemed like most of the energy was coming out on its own. I mean I was definitely pulling it out, but I wasn't focusing too much, it was so overwhelming. But as it came out, I realized exactly what I was able to do. I could draw on _all_ the pain I had felt during that fight. _All_ the damage I had taken came back to me, even the pain I'd already turned into strength. So I took it, and turned it into power, like always, and I _felt_ how strong I was, it was like I was a god or something!" She exclaimed as she stared at her hands. "But it wasn't quite the same. I should have just been focusing that immense power into one part of my body, but it went through my whole body."

"So you were able to evenly distributed it?" The patient soul guessed.

She looked up at him. "No. That's just it. It didn't distribute itself… it just went through all of me." The officers looked confused, while AJ looked uncertain if he'd correctly guessed what she meant. She elaborated. "When I focus the power, I always focus it into one place, but this power acted like my body _was_ that one place."

She then realized she could explain this better. "Okay, let me use some random numbers here. Let's say the damage from a normal punch could be turned into five power, right? And I would put that five power into my hand or my leg to deal some damage. Now let's just say everything I took during that fight added up to… five thousand." She picked the first big number that popped into her head. "That five thousand strength boost should have just gone to my hand for some huge punch, but instead that five thousand got put into every fiber of muscle I had." And from there she slowly became more passionate as she went on. "When I smashed the ground, it had pretty much five thousand behind it. When I jumped, both my legs had massive strength behind them to do it! When I threw that punch, I gave it everything I had, so all my strength plus that full five thousand!

I felt like I was unstoppable! Like I could overcome any obstacle in my way! And you know what I realized after I hit that guy?" The passion vanished and she suddenly became scary serious. "The power didn't vanish after I hit him. It only stopped because I knew it was over and stopped using my magic."

Their eyes widened.

"Wait, so you're saying that that ability, whatever it was, took the pain of the _entire fight_ , even pain you'd already used to counter attack, and used it to give your entire body a _massive_ increase in power? And to make it more insane, you could _keep using it_? It didn't get used up like it would in a normal attack?" AJ asked for confirmation.

"Nope! Not even a little!" The purple soul answered, slightly terrified of this ability. "And how do I know this!?" She asked, greatly confused. "Why do I totally understand what I just did!?"

"Well, a lot of new mages have claimed that they just somehow knew how to use an ability at some point. Me, Alphys, and sans still agree that it's our souls teaching us how to use our long lost abilities. It clearly doesn't happen for them all though, not even for whatever happened during these two events, since I still don't know what mine did besides what I observed." The teen answered.

"Well it's a terrifying power, that's for sure!" William commented.

"And very dangerous." The oldest among them pointed out. "Which the news is going to be sure to point out."

AJ let out an annoyed "Tch." "Damn it. We try to stop someone from making mages look bad, and we still gave them an excuse to be afraid of us."

"Though this might be the first one that I really don't blame them for." The just soul commented.

The boy sighed into his hands. "Well, ignoring things that irritate me for now, it's nice that we seemed to get lucky with you and your soul made it clear how your thing works. Now we just need to figure out how you did it. Any ideas?" He asked the woman.

She needed only a moment to think about it. "I was determined to persevere." She answered. "I just refused to give up. I wanted to beat him no matter how much it hurt me, cause at that point he'd lost it and was going to kill us."

The kind soul let out a breath through his nose as he stared at the floor, deep in thought. "Well that doesn't make any sense. Yours was related to your trait, but all I know for mine that is that some dude was being the _opposite_ of kind. What is it, then? You got power from your trait, but where did mine come from? I wasn't being kind at all, I was stopping the bastard…"

"Hey, while we're on the topic of weird stuff, I wanna ask..." Rebecca started, pointing at the human Dreemurr. "There was one point when he ambushed you and you perfectly deflected him like you knew he was there! I thought it was some fighting instinct at first, but it was more like you sensed him."

"Oh yeah, that." AJ responded, smiling a bit. "I kind of have Alex to thank for that one. She attacked me earlier today, but I felt that she was coming, and I mean _felt it_. It wasn't like times where I knew what my opponent was doing, that's more like fighting instinct. This was more like… Well have you ever felt like someone was there? Their presence breaking through the quiet, or the feeling of their eyes on you?"

"Not really." The woman answered.

"No." William answered.

"I've heard of that, but I don't know that I have. Then again I've been around awhile." Samuel answered.

The boy chuckled. "Yeah, I guess that's just how it is. It's one of many things science knows is there, but they can't really explain it. We think it's an evolutionary thing, but we don't really know anything for sure. We just know that there's a lot of evidence of people who are… special, somehow. Some people are empaths and can feel other people's emotions, some people swear they can talk to the dead… my mom once swore that she saw a crash through the eyes of one of the drivers, and later got a call from a friend saying that a mutual friend of theirs was just in an accident. And, among the many other classes of special people, are the ones like me, who seem to be able to sense people's presences more than others.

This was more like how I always can feel someone walking into my room, even when they're quiet. As long as I can remember, you couldn't even walk up to my door with the intent to open it without me waking up. I _always_ knew, even in my sleep, that my privacy was being invaded. At least, that's how it felt to me, but I realized last year that it's not that. I just, _felt_ Alex coming up behind me, so I reacted, and I found it so weird at the time, it was way too familiar."

He seemed quite certain of something at that moment. "I already think that using my magic for so long is making me get more in tune with my soul, and now I'm starting to think that getting in tune with my soul is making me more sensitive to things, making what's special about me even more so. When I couldn't find him, I decided to test my theory and try to focus. I tried to just… let my soul feel for him, tried to find him with whatever lets me 'sense' people… and it worked! I could feel where he was like I felt Alex behind me, like I feel people coming into my room, like I feel Frisk moving around whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night. I guess that kind of confirms that I really am more sensitive to 'sensing people', and that my connection with my soul has made me even more so now."

"Wait, so is every mage gonna be able to do that eventually?" William asked, curious.

"Um… I don't really know." AJ admitted. "I mean I don't _think_ so, cause not everyone can sense people in the first place... but I don't know. We really don't know!" He exclaimed. "Me and Frisk keep discovering new little things about magic as time goes on, and eventually everyone else will too! You guys just wait till a few months have gone by, I already feel like using magic is super natural now. Like, my barriers, I can create those things _so_ much faster than when I first learned how! By the time a year's gone by, it'll be as easy as breathing, I'd bet!"

He noticed Samuel and Rebecca were smiling in amusement at him.

He lowered his head and let out a breath as he pretended there was an itch on his forehead. "You guys have had to hear me talk a lot today." He chuckled. "Sorry about that."

"Technically, you haven't talked that much today, its way past midnight." William pointed out.

"You know what I mean." The boy countered.

"And what's there to be sorry about? I think you're forgetting that you're kind of a celebrity in a way, and celebrities have the benefit of people wanting to hear their opinions about stuff."

"But I'm not a celebrity, I'm just me."

"Most of us are always numb to our own achievements and renown." Samuel spoke. "You never know what others are thinking about you, so you end up with people that assume everyone thinks they're the greatest, and people who think they're nothing special."

"And so what if you're just you? 'Just you' is one of the two people who have been mages the longest, so you'll know more about the subject. And today alone you've shown that you're a smart young man, so I want to hear what you have to say anyway." The purple soul pointed out with a friendly smile. "And let's not forget that you're the one that taught us how to use our magic, and taught us a new way to fight, so we're pretty used to you teaching us stuff at this point!" She said before laughing, and her peers laughed a bit as well.

"Yeah, well, I'm done teaching now. I just want to go home so Frisk can know I'm okay." AJ commented.

"Yeah, I think we all deserve some rest." William said.

"But you most of all, AJ." Rebecca spoke up. "You didn't have to help us with this, but it turns out we needed all the help we could get!" She said with a joking smile that soon changed to a thankful one. "Thank you. You were very brave today."

"Yes, thank you." Samuel said as well.

"I'm just glad we're alright, especially you." The boy said to the woman.

"You worry too much." Rebecca commented with a smile.

"Yeah Frisk says that a lot." The boy quickly commented. "You worry too little." He responded.

"I had nothing to worry about with you there." She said with a friendly smile.

AJ gained a small, embarrassed smile. "Well thanks for having so much faith in me."

* * *

 **Hope you don't mind the, shall we call it "hero moment". I really couldn't help it considering Jet Set Run and You Say Run were the** _ **other**_ **inspiring songs that let me write this whole chapter. I just** _ **had**_ **to use one of them for that scene!**

 **As for what comes next in the story, Alphys is obviously going to want to talk about what just happened, so we'll likely do that next.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and I hope this new year is a better one for all of us.**


	40. A List Of Mage Abilities

**So I'm making a chapter that is much more clearly listing the abilities of human mages, or at least what is currently known.**

 **No one has actually asked for this, but the further we go into this story, the more I think it'd be a good idea once and a long while. After all, it's a fact that the quality of people's memory varies, and I've been writing this story and AU for a longer time than I think sometimes.**

 **So yeah, here's all the information the world knows at this point when it comes to mage traits, and their abilities. I might do more chapters like this for other details of the world if I think it's a good idea (or someone asks, I guess). I'll certainly do one far in the future when we've learned a lot of new information about things.**

* * *

ProtectorTale, Life Above Ch.40

* * *

Chat forums.

Normally they're full of either memes or politics, but this one is full of magic.

Specifically a bunch of non-magic humans, talking about magic.

With many of the world's scientists, including the monsters' own scientist, Dr. Alphys, working to understand magic in greater detail than monsters could previously, the rest of the world likes to add their own guesses and theories. This inevitably turns into people just talking about magic, but it's not like the scientists were likely going to see this forum anyway.

But after throwing around so many terms and facts about the magic the monsters are made of, the magic monsters use, and the magic human mages use, people start to lose track of what's actually fact, and the less confident ones begin to doubt their own memory.

So a teen named Alana Wakenzia posted. "Hang on. I'm gonna check again and see if we're just totally stupid or not."

So she pulled up another tab and searched for the official website Alphys created so she could categorize and share information with the rest of the world. Alana moused past the section with tutorials for new mages, and the section with videos explaining monsters and a basic video explaining the difference between physical matter and magic, which also gave a basic description of magic itself. She found the tab titled "Mage Abilities" and clicked it. A page opened up and she began scrolling through the list of mages and their known abilities, written by Alphys herself, with editing by 'AJ' Dreemurr.

"Before we start I want to clarify that, like many other scientists, I want for people to be more knowledgeable of the world around them. As such, I will not keep any information about human magic hidden from you. But be warned that magic is not all fun and games, some of the abilities of mages have only one purpose, and that is to cause harm. This is just as true for magic that monsters can employ. Do not take this lightly. In a world that is quickly filling up with magic, we must all learn to be responsible and careful with our abilities. Learn about your powers and learn to control them, and most importantly, never use them to harm someone, and if you do than it must only be in self-defense.

With that out of the way, here's the list of the seven human soul traits.

* * *

First off, the big one. Determination, for monsters, this is the one thing humans are most known for.

Color: Red.  
Soul Flame: Red with a light red center. Lightly warm. You can't help but feel strong when you touch it.  
Their abilities actually need to be split into two categories.  
Against mages: Determined mages can block, stop, break, etc. every soul magic we know of currently. They can block ranged attacks, dissolve barriers, and break binds. If it's human magic, it can be broken by this trait.  
Though most humans won't know this, since thankfully humans and monsters aren't at war anymore, certain monsters can change the color of a human soul during a battle. The act of changing colors itself is harmless, if it wasn't, we wouldn't have allowed Frisk to test this.  
Against monsters: A determined mage can actually undo the colored magic of monsters, and in some cases even reverse the negative effects into a positive one for the mage. If a monster turned a human soul blue, they would barely be able to jump, but a determined mage can undo this. If made to stand still by having their soul turned green, they can turn that green energy into a shield on their arm. I actually designed a device that could turn a human's soul yellow, and allow them to fire bolts that merely sting a bit, but a determined mage can amplify it to actually be a really powerful ranged attack, like a real mage of justice.

(Sheer force of will. The determination to do whatever it is that you want to do. Theirs is greater than others, so much greater that they can stop the powers of others.)

* * *

Second one. Patience.

Color: Light blue/teal.  
Soul flame: Teal with a purple center. Quite cold.  
Abilities: The most basic ability of patient mages is the magic ropes that they can create from their fingers, or a larger one from their whole hand if they make a fist like they're grabbing a whip. They use them to wrap around things.  
They can also create a tall, box shaped barrier around them if they keep their feet planted on the ground and do not move anywhere. The barrier can block physical ranged attacks as well as anything magic related, but it can be walked through.  
They are also capable of blue attacks, magical attacks that will not harm a target if they aren't moving when it hits them. Though while some monsters can perform blue attacks with even just their fists, that it only because they are made mostly of magic. Humans do not have a lot of magic in their bodies, only their souls, so they would need a magical object to use blue attacks. As such, there is very little I have to work with in terms of human blue attacks, and am unsure if patient mages are capable of ranged blue attacks.

(Being patient. Knowing when to speak, when to act. They use their patience as a tool, to protect themselves, and to attack if necessary.)

* * *

The third one is Integrity.

Color: Blue.  
Soul flame: Blue with a purple center. Neutral temperature.  
Abilites: They can see the integrity of others. Blue souled mages have described people becoming black silhouettes when they use this vision ability, and they fill in from the outside edges with a certain amount of 'blue', indicating the integrity of that person. The more blue, the more of a 'moral compass' that person has.  
They can also tell if a person is lying or not, although they must make skin-to-skin contact with a person, and it isn't automatic.  
They can also place bouncy blue magic platforms on any flat surface.

("A man of Integrity." Morality. Knowing right from wrong. They use their integrity to see the morals of others, and how much they care for right and wrong.)

* * *

The fourth is Perseverance.  
And for those who are confused, the difference between determination and perseverance is that determination is just being determined to do whatever it is that you want to do. But determination can falter, while perseverance is trying your all to do whatever it is you want to do, even when things get tough or don't go right the first few times. Consider it stubbornness if you will.

Color: Purple.  
Soul Flame: Purple with blue center.  
Abilties: To put it simply, traps. Webs, sticky goo, vine traps that activate when you're close, even slowness mist. I get too many reports to list them all here, but these seem to be the most common.  
They also have a pretty noticeable running speed boost. Though detailed reports and tests have shown that it is actually a strength boost that only goes into the legs, and can only be used for mobility. A mage can run and jump higher than a normal human because of their enhanced strength, but Perseverance mages can run and jump even higher with their "Speed boost", so much so that they are on a clearly different level. Reports have confirmed for me that any attempt to use this strength boost to the legs as an attack always fails before it can connect. The magic is very particular about the rules for its usage.  
Finally, they can turn any damage they take into extra strength that pushes them beyond the limits a mage can normally reach.

(Sheer stubbornness, used to break through whatever obstacle gets in their way, no matter how much it knocks them down. And if you can't persevere yourself, you will never escape their traps.)

* * *

The fifth will be Bravery.

Color: Orange  
Soul flame: Orange with a red center. Hot.  
Abilities: A speed boost they can use throughout their whole body, through their running speed isn't quite as fast as Perseverance. It is only speed, not strength focused on mobility, like Perseverance. Imagine it like The Flash. He could run and punch fast, but his power was literally speed, not power in any particular part of his body. Brave mages can just make their bodies move faster. If they were to punch you, it would hurt more than with other mages, but because the punch came in at a higher velocity, not because there was more strength behind it.  
Ranged orange attacks that come out from their fists, in the shape of fists. Orange attacks only harm a target if they aren't moving. None have reported manifestation of any melee orange attacks, and the reason is likely the same as it is for blue attacks. Humans cannot make their mostly physical bodies the source of the orange attack.  
They also create an angled barrier in front of them if they keep moving. It blocks everything that the patience barrier protects from, though it seems noticeably harder to break.  
Some have also reported the ability to make others braver with their magic. Though I have yet to confirm this myself, I see little reason to believe those reports are lies.

("Fear? Never heard of her." Sheer bravery. Always struggling against the horrors that would scare others into submission. They don't need any more than the light of their soul to run head-first into darkness. Like Patience, their bravery is their weapon, and their shield.)

* * *

The sixth is Kindness.

Color: Green  
Soul flame: Green with a darker green center. Pleasantly warm.  
Abilities: They can create flat barriers anywhere around them. They can either be horizontal or vertical, though they must be parallel or at a ninety degree angle from the direction they're facing. They do not have to see the spot they are creating the barrier, but they have to imagine the spot if they can't see it, and it must still be in line of sight of them. For example, they can imagine one behind a wall, but if the wall is between them and the intended place of the barrier, it will not form. Also, if something were to block the space the barrier was being created in during the time it took to form, it will dissolve, as it can only exist as its whole shape, not a part of it.  
They can also create healing magic. Healing magic is a form of magic that will heal anything it deems a wound if it comes in contact with it, and will in doing so will heal damaged souls as well. It will heal it completely, leaving no scar or any other mark behind.

Quick note: "What exactly does healing magic fix?"  
Humans are still experimenting to see exactly what healing magic can fix for their bodies, but they have found few exceptions so far.  
Healing magic has definitely been confirmed to fix broken bones, cuts, scratches, fractures, burns, frostbite, and quite a few other things, but you humans have a frankly large list of injuries to keep track of, I can't write it all here. It is worth noting that healing magic doesn't always deem a dislocation to be something to reset, depending on the severity of it. It doesn't heal chronic problems, or things that involve a joint or bone being slowly moved out of place over time, nor will it set your spine back in place, you humans will still need "Chiropractors". It does always remove pain signals if it detects them, but only for a short time after the healing magic passed over the source of pain.

(They are not kind because they believe it is the right thing to do, they are kind because it is what they want to do, and they can't imagine doing anything else. They use their kindness to protect themselves and those around them.)

* * *

And last but not least, Justice.

Color: Yellow.  
Soul flame: Yellow with a green center. Extremely hot. Can set things on fire, so be careful.  
Abilities: The most basic ability of the just mages is a yellow laser that can be shot from the index finger of a hand when shaped like a finger pistol.  
They also have the ability to place the vision of one eye in another location within their sight, leaving a bright yellow light where they are seeing from.  
All other reports have told of quickly drawing or holstering a pistol, extremely accurate aim, running up or along walls for a short amount of time, and even firing lasers from an empty pistol. But strangely, not all yellow souled mages have reported having these abilities. Still experimenting to find out why, but my current theory is that justice may have levels to it, and that the less intense of justice souls don't have as many of these abilities. Unsure as to why this would be the case though, if it even _is_ the case.

(Not simply knowing right and wrong, but acting on it. They use their power to seek out and deliver the justice that wrongdoers deserve. Whatever they feel is just.)

* * *

Alexa immediately went back to the chat forum. "Ha! Even Alphys calls it a finger pistol, so deal with it!"

* * *

 **Just a note as the person who made this whole Soul Magic AU. In the months I spent thinking about the abilities of different traits, I used various sources as inspiration. Some were inspired by game mechanics, like Integrity and the bouncy magic in relation to "YOU'RE BLUE NOW!" Some powers I thought up while thinking more of the trait itself, like Perseverence's ability to turn pain into power. And as I ran out of ideas, I started to just draw on anything I came across on the internet, or my own memory of powers I'd seen in shows and games over the years. If I thought it might fit a trait, I considered using it.**

 **But, I always treated it like a game. As I came up with and assigned abilities, even after considering everything else, I needed to consider balance. I had to consider if it was fair for some traits to have certain powers, and some powers were never assigned because they were too much. It was a mix of a lot of things. I wasn't too focused on a rock-paper-scissors approach to balance, or making sure they all had equal power, it was definitely a bit of everything. The main thing I decided though, was that if I ended up giving someone too much power, it was alright as long as the other traits got something stupidly powerful as well. That way I'm free to add more interesting and IMO cool powers to the various traits, and let everyone have something really powerful about them. You'll see more of that as we go on.**

 **But of course, no amount of words feels like it properly explains what I was thinking as I developed this AU. All I can really say, is that it needed to feel right to me. A complex relationship between every power, separate comparisons, and also how they compare when you add them all up. Is someone potentially really powerful? Probably. But someone else should be really powerful in a different way or situation, and in the case of this world, that's alright with me.**

 **Have a great week, everyone!**


	41. The I'm not dead update

The short version is I'm not dead and I'm not done, in case anyone is getting any weird ideas.

The thing is, back in early February, I injured both my wrists (RSI, if you know what that is, if not, look it up, you're literally on the internet right now) gaming too much with a mouse of keyboard (PC master race my ***). Because of this, I spend a long time unable to do pretty much anything with my hands without pain, couldn't even hold my phone or play games with a controller, both of which I used to be able to do forever without worry. I still tried to write, a paragraph at a time was the best I could do though. Managed to push through most of the chapter I was already working on, and it's actually over 8000 words now. There's a lot more I want to do with it, but I realize now that I should just make a small addition and end the chapter there, than do the rest as a separate thing, just like the event with the thief mage. Even so, that's asking too much of me right now, just writing this update hurts.

I was actually pretty far along in my healing and gaming daily again, but then I spent a whole day doing school work (cause I'd fallen so far behind and wanted to start catching up) and that one day of work COMPLETELY reset my progress, and I was back to major pain and being unable to anything again. That was just under two weeks ago I think, so I'm far from good to go right now. I honestly think I need to spend the first half of summer break (maybe even longer) doing as little as possible if I want to ever fully heal again.

So yeah, I'm not dead, or quitting, I just literally couldn't do anything I wanted or needed to do for a long time, and I still have a long time to go before I can. I just figured you all deserved an update after so much time hearing nothing from me.

And now I'm going to stop cause ow.

Have a good day and a great week!


End file.
